Can dogs sense sadness?

Do dogs understand when their owners are sad? Plenty of pet owners are comforted by a pair of puppy-dog eyes or a swipe of the tongue when their dog catches them crying. Now, new research suggests that dogs really do respond uniquely to tears. But whether pets have empathy for human pain is less clear. read more

Still, the researchers aren't dog whisperers, and they can't prove conclusively what the dogs were thinking. It's possible that dogs learn to approach crying people because their owners give them affection when they do, the researchers wrote. read more

A dog can sense this. Changes in breath chemicals may be one way that seizure-alert dogs recognize that a person is about to have a seizure. It’s sometimes said that “dogs can smell fear,” and this is probably true. read more

All dog owners like to think that their pet can sense their mood and emotions. Although researchers now accept that dogs, and other non-human animals, can experience primary emotions such as anxiety, fear, and anger, they still do not accept that “animals” have a sense of self and are capable of sophisticated secondary emotions. read more