Humans Affect Their Dog’s Long-Term Stress
by Jenny Alonge
Stress is mental or emotional strain resulting from adverse circumstances. This anxiety can be beneficial, preparing your body to fight or flee from a dangerous situation, or motivating you when you are getting ready to take a test or job interview. However, chronic stress can have serious deleterious effects on your body. As in humans, long-term stress can affect dogs, and recent research shows that pet owners’ stress can influence canine stress levels.
How does stress affect humans and dogs?
During long-term stress, the body never receives a clear signal to return to normal functioning, resulting in strain on several body systems, including:
- Musculoskeletal — Stress causes muscles to tense. Chronic muscle tension in the shoulders, neck, and head can cause headaches and migraines. Chronic muscle tension in the low back and upper extremities has also been linked to stress.
- Respiratory — Stress causes an increased respiration rate, and can lead to hyperventilation, and trigger a panic attack. Studies have shown that stress can also trigger asthma attacks.
- Cardiovascular — Stress causes an increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and elevated stress hormone levels. When prolonged, these factors can increase the risk for hypertension, heart attack, and stroke.
- Endocrine — Stress results in increased cortisol production, which can provide the energy needed to handle an acute situation. However, increased cortisol levels can result in numerous health conditions, including metabolic and immune disorders. In humans, this has also been linked to chronic fatigue syndrome and depression.
- Gastrointestinal (GI) — The GI tract has hundreds of millions of neurons that the brain signals constantly. Stress affects this brain-gut communication, and can result in pain, nausea, and bloating. Stress may also affect changes in the normal gut bacteria, causing GI upset and mood changes.
Dogs mirrors their owners’ long-term stress levels
In 2019, Hoglin et al. conducted a study involving 58 dogs and their owners. Each participant’s hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) were analyzed on two separate occasions, reflecting levels during the previous summer and winter months. The owners completed personality questionnaires about their dogs and themselves that focused on the Big Five Inventory—extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. In addition, the dog’s activity level was constantly monitored for one week with a remote cloud-based activity collar.
- Human HCC’s effect on dog HCC — Human HCC had a significant effect on dog HCC for summer and winter samples. When human HCC increased, dog HCC increased.
- Human personality’s effect on dog HCC — Human personality traits had an extensive impact on dog HCC. Neuroticism, openness, and conscientiousness had the most influence.
- Dog personality’s effect on dog HCC — Dog personality traits had little effect on dog HCC.
- Physical activity’s effect on dog HCC — Physical activity had little effect on dog HCC.
These results show that long-term stress levels were synchronized between dogs and their owners. Since the owner’s personality significantly impacted their dog’s HCC, the researchers concluded that the dogs were mirroring their owner’s stress levels.
Long-term canine stress is related to their owner’s relationship and personality traits
The same researchers published an adjunct report in April 2021. This study involved 24 ancient-breed dogs (i.e., those genetically closer to wolves) and 18 hunting dogs. HCC was analyzed on the dogs and their owners. The owners also completed lifestyle surveys, the Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale (MDORS), a dog personality questionnaire, and a Big Five Inventory Survey. The owners from the previous study were also asked to complete the MDORS.
Emotional contagion (i.e., the spread of emotions and related behaviors) has been demonstrated between dogs and humans through physiological, endocrine, and behavioral responses. The dog’s domestication, and sharing their human’s everyday life, could be the cause, but breed selection may also contribute. Herding breeds were specifically selected for human cooperation, which may be why their long-term stress synchronized so strongly with their owners. Ancient breeds are thought to be genetically closer to wolves, and have not been selected for human cooperation. Hunting breeds are selected for their ability to hunt independently, and have been shown to differ in their attention and behavior toward humans. This study’s aim was to investigate dogs who are not selected for human cooperation, and to further investigate features affecting dog HCC.
- Personality — For the ancient breeds, no association was found between owner personality traits and their dogs’ HCC. For the hunting breeds, their HCC showed a negative association with the trait Agreeableness and a positive association with Openness, suggesting that owners influenced their hunting breeds more than the ancient breeds. The ancient breed’s and hunting breed’s HCC were affected by dog personalities related to aggression.
- Human-dog relationship — The MDORS is a multi-dimensional questionnaire to assess human-companion dog relationships, with 28 items that involve dog-owner interaction, perceived emotional closeness, and perceived costs. For ancient and hunting breeds in this study, and the herding breeds in the previous study, the owner-dog relationship affected the dogs’ HCC. Ancient breeds were less affected than hunting and herding breeds. The MDORS results were similar for ancient and herding breeds. In contrast, hunting breed owners experienced less positive interactions with their dogs, perceived a weaker emotional bond, and considered their dogs more costly, compared with ancient or herding dog owners.
- HCC synchronization — Results showed little support for long-term stress synchronization between owners and their ancient- or hunting-dog breed.
These results suggest that the synchronization found in herding dogs could be caused by their selection for human cooperation, but the human-dog relationship and personality traits are important features affecting dog HCC.
Dogs share our lives, and experience the same stressors, so the fact that owners influence their stress levels makes sense. Finding ways to mitigate these issues is paramount to keeping pet owners and their dogs happy and healthy.
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