Los Angeles Times

Coming home stressed? Your dog is internalizing those bad vibes too, study suggests

Is your dog stressed out? Maybe you're the one who needs a belly rub.

New research finds that throughout a dog's life, the stress levels of a canine and his or her human tend to rise and fall together. In fact, stress in a dog appears to be more closely linked to the stress of its owner than it is to the dog's own temperament.

In the 15,000 years that humans and dogs have lived together, dependence and mutual affection have deepened our bond. And science has long established that "emotional contagion" between us and our canine pets is very real.

The new study, published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, is the first to find that this contagion is

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times6 min readAmerican Government
Young Voters Don't Give Biden Credit For Passing The Biggest Climate Bill In History
President Joe Biden spent his Earth Day in a national forest this year with an explicit pitch to young people: a climate jobs corps intended to excite Gen Z the way John F. Kennedy's Peace Corps inspired their grandparents. Biden took a selfie with R
Los Angeles Times3 min readAmerican Government
LZ Granderson: Trump's Racist 'Welfare' Dog Whistle Is Nonsense Just Like Reagan's
Donald Trump took his dog whistle down to Florida last weekend, where he reportedly told a room full of donors: "When you are Democrat, you start off essentially at 40% because you have civil service, you have the unions and you have welfare." He the
Los Angeles Times6 min read
A Tale Of Two Downtowns In LA: As Offices Languish, Apartments Thrive
By many measures, downtown Los Angeles’ newest apartment tower is over the top with such gilded flourishes as stone tiles from Spain lining the elevator cabs and hand-troweled Italian plaster on interior walls. Hummingbirds have somehow found the fru

Related Books & Audiobooks