October 2024

Hi Michael,

October is a special month for me. it's my anniversary month, the month I met my Stella and Stewie (we still miss them). October is also the month we first met Charlie (can you believe it's been a year).

I dedicated this issue to the deep connection we share with our dogs. I hope you'll read both the featured articles this go around. Let me know what you think.

:-) Michael

Stress Crisis: Dogs and Humans Under Pressure

The biggest challenge in dog training these days is us.

We humans are stressed out. Life is coming at us (coming for us) from all directions. Work pressure is endemic. Social media is a constant mirror to our perceived inadequacies. It’s an election year.

This summer the U.S. Surgeon General actually issued a mental health advisory. Let’s not take that lightly. The Surgeon General reserves health advisories for big stuff, like warnings about smoking or AIDS. This advisory sounded the alarm about the mental health of parents. Forty-eight percent of parents say their stress is “completely overwhelming.” They’re worried about money, safety, their children’s future. And they’re worried about time. They’ve maxed out their schedules. They simply don’t have enough time in a day to do everything they need to do.

Can Dogs Feel What We are Feeling?

It’s called emotional contagion. The idea is that dogs perceive our emotions and then experience an emotional response themselves. Affective empathy takes it a bit further. Dogs can actually feel our emotional experiences. (Karen London PhD, Bark Magazine). It turns out that there’s plenty of evidence to suggest both of these ideas are true. (Google “emotional contagion dogs.” Use google scholar for more in-depth results).

Of course, a lot of us have suspected this for a long time. Many of us routinely experience it. Dogs just get us. They have feelings with us. They are little mirrors into our emotional lives. It’s an amazing thing to witness as a dog behavior consultant. I meet a ton of people and their dogs every year. Sometimes it’s very clear to me that a dog who is suffering emotionally lives with a human who is also suffering. It’s heartbreaking sometimes. It’s also awe inspiring to see such a powerful bond playing out in real time right in front of me.