5 Incredible Things Dogs Sense About You

• Katie Waldeck

For centuries, people have been turning to their beloved pooches for  affection and companionship. And for good reason — dogs are incredibly  perceptive and intelligent creatures. They may not understand the nuances of  everyday life, of course, but dogs have an incredible ability to understand how  their pet parents are feeling emotionally, and even physically.  Indeed, they don’t call ‘em man’s best friend for nothing!

Click through to check out some of the amazing things that your canine friend  can tell about you.

1. They Know if You’re Scared.

Heard something go bump in the night? Dogs can pick up on your fear, and will  usually mimic your behavior. If you’d like to alleviate your dog’s fear, you  need to alleviate your own first! One exception, though, would be the  several breeds that have been, well, bred, to be guard dogs.

2. They Notice Inequality.

Dogs can tell if you’re playing favorites. Let’s say you have two dogs who  both earned a treat for good behavior. If you give a treat to only one, the  other will likely pick up on that, and believe she’s done something wrong. They  can even stop cooperating all together. Perhaps there’s something us humans can  learn from this!

3. They Know Whether or Not You’re Paying  Attention.

Any pet parent with a sneaky pooch knows this one is totally true! The  science backs it up, too: studies have shown that dogs are perfectly aware  whether or not there are any people around, and will behave accordingly. Even  the most well-behaved dog on the block can’t risk temptations when no humans are  around to scold them.

4.  They Can Tell if You’re  Sick.

Dogs have long been prized — and put to work  — for their keen sense of smell. Their noses are thousands of times stronger  than the average human! Just as dogs are trained to sniff for drugs or  explosives, dogs have also been successfully trained to pick up on the extremely  subtle scents our bodies give off when we have cancer. Other dogs have been  trained to alert their pet parents when they’re about to have a seizure minutes  or even hours before an attack will happen– though it’s not entirely clear if  this skill is related to dog’s sense of smell.

5. They Know If You’re Sad.

Does your dog somehow know just what to do when you’re not feeling so happy?  You’re not imagining it — studies have shown that dogs can pick up on your  sadness and are more likely to approach you. One such study placed two people,  one crying and one quiet, in a room. Almost all of the dogs approached the  crying person, and most of those did so with submissive body language — even if  the crying person was a stranger to them. Researchers, though, aren’t entirely  clear on whether this means that dogs fully understand empathy.