Dogs may be impacted by owners' stress, study suggests

Stress levels in dogs are affected by how much stress their owners are feeling, according to a study from researchers at Queen's University of Belfast (QUB).

"The experience of stress, particularly chronic stress, can have deleterious effects on canine behaviour and welfare," the study said.

It investigated whether changes in owner stress levels influenced dog stress, for example, on a visit to the vet.

And while visits to the vets are an important part of keeping a dog healthy, the study said they can also "result in acute stress as a result of confinement, uncertainty, pain, and loss of autonomy".

Twenty-eight dogs and their owners took part in the study, which was carried out at a veterinary clinic in Dublin.

Ten of the dogs were male and 18 were female, and their ages ranged from one to 17 years old.

Half of the owners did a breathing meditation exercise designed to reduce their stress levels and help them relax during the study.

As part of it they also read affirmations like “My dog brings me joy” and “I care for my dog”.

The other half of the owners took a "Digital Stress Test", which can induce moderate stress.

The owners and their dogs were both fitted with heart rate monitors to monitor changes in the heart rate between beats.

Video footage was also collected throughout to assess if the dog's behaviour changed.

The study suggested that changes in an owner's stress levels could lead to changes in their dog's stress levels, and that dogs responded to their owner’s stress.

Changes in the owner's heart rate "significantly predicted" changes in the heart rate of their dogs.

"This result is in line with our hypothesis that changes in owner stress levels influence canine stress," the paper said.

"Changes in human stress levels can have an innate and immediate effect on canine indicators of physiological stress.

"By devising strategies to mitigate owner stress in veterinary settings, canine stress may, as a result of reducing owner stress, also be alleviated."

The results also suggested that giving the dogs time to adjust to being in the vets and not rushing them into their examination could reduce any fear or stress they were feeling.

"This research highlights the importance of providing dogs with time to acclimatise to the clinic environment to reduce the stress experienced by dogs in these settings, which may in turn improve the accuracy of any physical examinations or diagnostics performed," the study said.

It also recommended that vets try to reduce the stress experienced by dog owners, as this would also help their dogs.

The researchers did, however, acknowledge that the number of dogs and owners taking part was small, due to the time constraints of the study.

The research, carried out by vet Aoife Byrne and Dr Gareth Arnott from the School of Biological Sciences at QUB, has been published in the Journal of Applied Animal Behaviour Science.