Dogs are exceptional at connecting with humans and forming strong bonds. The closer dogs and humans are, the more attuned the dogs become to human emotions. So that they can sense anxiety, depression, and other distress signals. As a result, anxiety in dogs gradually grows.
Sometimes, it can feel like your dog has a sixth sense of your emotions. However, they may be just good at using their sense of smell.
Research has discovered that dogs can detect odors that indicate changes in stress levels. It helps us understand the unique bond between dogs and humans, which can improve how we train psychiatric service dogs and therapy dogs to help many people in need.
Dogs and Human Emotions

Dogs are observant animals. They know a lot more about their owners than we think of them. They can read body language cues, distinguish various tones of voice, and even read facial expressions and connect them to the appropriate emotion. Perhaps they are masters of nonverbal communication and can quickly pick up on their owner’s emotional state by solely relying on their observational skills.
Furthermore, dogs have an acute sense of smell. Their nose is so powerful as to pick up on chemical signals, or chemosignals, emitted from the body. In the wild, dogs have used chemosignal detection to locate food and avoid predators.
Once we domesticate the dogs, they pick up on the subtle differences in the chemosignal odors that humans emit. Research has found that people’s chemosignal scents are different when they’re at their baseline and have a stress response. We can see these scents in people’s breath and sweat, and dogs can smell and distinguish them.
There are service dogs that have been specially trained to detect the early signs of seizures and other potentially dangerous health episodes before the human patient is aware of them, although we are not yet certain if they are picking up on changes in pheromones, electrical activity, or something else entirely.
A study in 2022 found that dogs can detect and distinguish chemosignals associated with happiness, fear, and a neutral state of being. So, even if we might appear calm, your dog may still be able to sense emotional stress because of chemosignals emitted from your body.
How Do Dogs React to Depression and Anxiety?

Dogs feel different emotions, and they can empathize with people. If a dog sees that its owner is in depressed mode, it may help him feel better by cuddling with them or sitting by their side.
Also, dogs can experience emotional contagion, or “catching” their owner’s emotions. So, if you’re feeling anxious, your dog also feels and shows signs of anxiety, like restless pacing and whining. If you notice that your dog is particularly agitated, stressed, or sad, it can be because of your change in emotions that it might have seen. His or her unstable state of emotions reflects your uneasiness.
Dogs, as carefree kind of animals, behave anxiously when a dog or a person approaches you while you both are on a dog walk with a leash. This anxiety seems to travel down the leash and the dog expresses his concern through stress or may take a more protective stance to provide security for the worried owner.
Psychiatric service dogs
Some dogs are aware of people’s emotional states and can become psychiatric therapy dogs. Psychiatric service dogs usually have calm temperaments. They can stay focused in busy and distracting environments. They’re also people-oriented dogs with an eagerness to please.
Psychiatric service dogs undergo extensive training to help their human companions. They must pass basic obedience training and learn to perform their assigned therapeutic tasks consistently and reliably. The trainers train Psychiatric service dogs to wake people up from night terrors, remind handlers to take their medication, and lead their handlers to a quiet space if they’re experiencing a panic attack.
Psychiatric service dogs serve different people. They commonly help people with PTSD, bipolar disorder, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Also, they help children with autism by helping them navigate and connect with the world around them, interrupt self-harming behaviors, and be a calming and grounding presence for children.
Dogs are emotional animals. They can sense and perceive different emotions in humans. You’ll notice anxiety in dogs as a condition, also they notice intense changes in humans as a result of anxiety. They use all their senses to observe and gather information on people’s emotional states. Some dogs even have higher levels of empathy, which makes them excellent candidates for service dog work. The time you feel stressed or nostalgic, observe your dog’s behavior. It will reflect your mood and will try to comfort you. Anyway, your dog is often an excellent indicator of your emotional state. So, paying attention to them can ultimately help you take better care of your emotional and mental health.