How do dogs act when they are sick
Does My Dog Know If Im Sick?
Flu season is upon us, and from past experience, you probably had your dog to comfort you if illness strikes. Dogs just seem to know when youre feeling under the weather. They lie beside you or cuddle you just when you need it most. How do they know something is wrong? Whether its flu, or something more serious, do dogs know when youre sick? And if so, what could they be noticing?
Do Dogs Know When Youre Sick?
Dr. Mary Burch, a certified applied animal behaviorist and the director of the AKC Family Dog program, believes dogs know when something is wrong with a persons health. She had a personal experience with her own dog Wyn.
Years ago, I had a life-threatening illness. When I came home from the hospital, I was in bed when my heart began to beat faster and it felt like it was pounding, she says. My dog, who was across the room in his bed, ran and jumped on my bed and pushed his head onto my chest over my heart. Within a few minutes, the incident passed and Wyn returned to his bed. I dont know that he had anything to do with my heart rate returning to normal, but he certainly sensed from a distance that something was wrong.
What could Wyn have noticed? Although its tempting to think dogs have some kind of sixth sense that lets them discover human health problems, there are far more likely explanations for Wyns behavior. Perhaps he heard or smelled something out of the ordinary. It could have been the way Dr. Burch was acting or her emotional state. Or it may have been a combination of all three.
Dogs Can Smell Illness
Dogs sense the world differently from humans. For example, they can hear high-pitched sounds people cant and their sense of smell is unbelievably powerful. Wyn may have heard something different about Dr. Burchs heartbeat, but its just as likely he smelled something wrong. The human body is a complex cocktail of chemicals that gives off odors our dogs can easily detect. In fact, a scientific study showed that dogs can tell identical twins apart even if those twins live in the same house and eat the same food. So, dogs know a persons individual smell and when illness changes that smell, dogs can notice that, too.
Even humans can observe the scent of sickness with some health problems. For example, diabetic ketoacidosis can cause fruity or acetone-smelling breath. However, with their powerful noses, dogs can detect many odors that humans are simply unaware of. For example, diabetic alert dogs can tell when their owners blood glucose levels are off because of changes in volatile organic compounds in their owners exhaled breath. And dogs have been shown to detect various types of cancer simply by sniffing samples of a patients tissue or even just their breath or urine.
So, if illness changes your body chemistry and your dog knows how youre supposed to smell, it shouldnt come as a surprise when they react to your illness. As Dr. Burch explains, Considering that dogs can detect cancer, diabetes, and seizures, we have every reason to believe that our dogs know when we are sick. Illness results in chemical changes in the body and changes in hormones and these changes can be detected by the dogs extraordinary sense of smell.
Dogs Can Understand Body Language and Changes in Routine
But thats not all dogs might be noticing when they react to their owners ill health. According to Dr. Burch, dogs pick up on other cues. When a normally active owner gets in bed in the middle of the day or takes to the couch and doesnt move, the dog knows something isnt quite right, she says. Depending on the illness, the owner may be exhibiting symptoms that are easy for the dog to detect. Sneezing, a runny nose (that the owner is blowing frequently), or gastrointestinal issues are other signs for the dog that the owner is not well.
As anybody who owns a dog with separation anxiety knows, dogs learn every step of daily routines. And they know when something is different. Your dog might become anxious if you dont let them out when you normally do or spend the day sleeping.
Dogs also read human body language extremely well. Even free-ranging dogs can follow human pointing gestures. So, your dog is constantly watching you and interpreting your behavior. When you act out of sorts, its unlikely to escape your dogs notice.
Dogs Can Read Human Emotions
Additionally, dogs can read human emotions. Your dog can hear your mood in your voice and is likely to react positively to happiness and negatively to sadness and fear. Dogs can also match the mood of your voice to the look on your face, knowing that a happy voice matches a happy expression.
Recent research has shown that dogs can use your emotional state to predict your behavior and, more amazingly, adjust their decision-making accordingly. So, your dog isnt just attending to your body language, but your mood as well. And who feels good when theyre sick? Its likely dogs can detect the change in your emotional state whenever you feel under the weather.
Why Do Dogs Comfort Sick People?
So, if your dog knows when youre sick, why do they react the way they do? Are they looking to comfort you or are they seeking comfort from you because something isnt right and thats making them anxious? It might depend on the dog. And it might depend on how you respond to your dogs attention when youre sick. If your pet earns rewards for cuddles and snuggles, it will reinforce the behavior, making it more likely to occur the next time youre feeling ill.
Or maybe dogs just like making us feel better. They might sense the changes in a persons body chemistry that result from their presence and be reinforced by that alone.
Owners of therapy dogs often say that their dogs seem to know the person in the room who needs them most, Dr. Burch says. When a dog gets close to someone who is sick or depressed, the dog could be sensing a decrease in hormones such as oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin. Studies have shown that petting a dog can reduce a persons blood pressure, and the dog may sense it can make a person feel better.
How Your Dog Knows When Youre Sick
I will do anything I can to avoid admitting Im sick. I take a double dose of my usual allergy medication when my nose gets stuffy. I blame my buildings dry heating system for my scratchy throat. I chalk up my lethargy and malaise to the fact that I spend roughly 14 hours a day on the internet.
The one symptom I cannot ignore, however, is my dogs tiny head, resting on my leg during a portion of the day when shes usually ignoring me. When she knows, I can no longer pretend I dont.
Midge, my 12-pound rescue pup, isnt the worlds most affectionate dog. We get along great, but she has her own hobbies: horrifically dismembering her cute little plush toys, chewing through her chew-proof bed. But as soon as even a mild head cold starts to take hold of me, my dog is transformed. Shes no longer her usual self, jabbing a dagger paw into my ribs to prod me into throwing her ball. Instead, shes Doctor Midge, Medicine Chihuahua, ready to nurse me back to health by cuddling up against me (or on top of me) at all times.
Although Im of the firm belief that my dog is a unique and special angel, its easy to find tales of other pets comforting or guarding their people during times of illness or injury. I was sick last week, and as Midge was glued to my side, friends told me about their own pets attending to them around the clock after everything from surgery to stomach troubles. (For the record, Midge didnt care when I sliced my hand open while washing dishes last month.)
Read: Do animals have feelings?
According to researchers who study canine cognition, its usually not just pet owners imagination. Pups really do know when their humans are having a rough time, and they use a rich variety of signals to figure it out. Not only can your pet tell when you have the sniffles, but domestic dogs have shown an aptitude for detecting both much more minute mood fluctuations and far more serious physical conditions.
Dogs are preternaturally sensitive to changes in their people, says Alexandra Horowitz, the head of the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College. If a person is infected with a virus or bacteria, they will smell different. Some illnesses change a persons odor so profoundly that even other people can notice it, but dogs are able to smell changes in their people that would escape human senses, or that are so early on that the sick person barely feels any different. Thats because dogs have exponentially more powerful senses of smell than humans: They can have as many as 300 million olfactory receptors in their nose, as opposed to a paltry 6 million for the average person.
Researchers have also found that a persons mood, which can be an indicator of a larger illness, triggers a dogs sense of smell. Human emotions manifest physically in chemosignals that are emitted by the body, and dogs are adept at deciphering those changes.
Beyond smell, dogs also pull information from a persons voice in order to sense changes. In 2014, researchers discovered that dogs have an area of the brain, similar to one found in humans, that allows them to decipher emotional cues in the tone of a speakers voice, beyond what theyd be able to pick up from familiar words alone. Thats why Midge wags her little tail when I excitedly ask her if shes my boo boo, even though she doesnt know what that is. (To be fair, neither do I.) A persons voice can also carry indicators of depression, lethargy, or other bad feelings.
Whats not understood quite so well is what dogs make of these changes. Were sending out lots of cues, of just the sort that dogs are specialized in attuning to, says Horowitz. Whether they think that it means sickness is not clear. What we perceive as concern on a dogs part might be more like increased curiosity or suspicion that something is wrong with us, and sticking close by is a great way to glean more information about the situation.
Also, concern might be vigilance, says Horowitz. If your pup is worried about your well-being, he or she might turn into the guard dog you never knew you had. In these situations, a dog insists on being the closest living being to you when youre sick or tries to prevent others from accessing you while you convalesce. Depending on the size and temperament of the dog, that might make keeping a flu patient hydrated a little tricky, but rest assured, Horowitz says, the pup means well.
Read: Dogs get anxiety, too
Over centuries of breeding, domestic pups have become even more finely attuned to humans than they are to any of their fellow dogs. When coupled with their incredible sensory abilities, such an intense connection is potentially an enormous boon to human health. Beyond common seasonal illnesses, some dogs have also shown the ability to accurately detect malaria, Parkinsons disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. And beyond detection, research suggests that dog ownership can have a variety of health and mood benefits in and of itself. Dogs can help people relax, and they can be a comfort to those with autism or those who are dealing with post-traumatic stress.
Among dogs, chihuahuas arent known for having an especially acute sense of smell, but they are said to be particularly protective of their owners. Midge has been known to fight the vacuum for my safety. Even if she is more run-of-the-mill house pet than disease-detecting superdog, it feels nice to have a warm little pup fall asleep on your lap, potentially out of concern for your well-being, when youre feeling cruddy.
In a certain sense, she is helping. Next time she kicks me in the ribs to expel a toy from my hands, I wont hold it against her.
