When a dog stares at you, it often means they want something (food, walk, play), are showing affection (releasing oxytocin), trying to read your body language for cues, or, less commonly, displaying anxiety or aggression. A soft, relaxed stare usually signals love, while a hard, stiff stare with other tense body language (furrowed brow, rigid tail) can mean stress or aggression, so observing their whole body is key to understanding their intent.
They love you!
A dog's loving gaze has been found to release a 'feel-good hormone' known as oxytocin in both you and your dog. This hormone helps you both feel happy and relaxed and helps you develop and maintain that close emotional bond that makes your relationship so special.
Stress/Anxiety
Your pooch trusts you, and his clinginess may be his way of seeking stability during times of stress, such as changes in routine or being in an unfamiliar setting. Apart from change in routine, a dog can develop separation anxiety due to isolation or when their owners move away.
If it's a soft gaze into your eyes, it could just be an expression of love. “When your dog looks at you with those soft, loving eyes and you look back, both of you release oxytocin, which is the hormone of love,” Dr. Dodman says.
Dogs say "sorry" through submissive body language like tucking their tail, lowering their head, making "puppy eyes," licking, and rolling onto their backs to show they're not a threat, which are appeasement signals to diffuse tension after a conflict or misbehavior, often combined with whining or approaching and retreating. They recognize when their human (or another dog) is upset and use these signs to seek forgiveness, though it's more about reducing stress than human-like guilt.
Canine lore tells us to never look a dog in the eye. Because among wolves and other dogs, leaning in for a stare is a surefire sign of aggression or challenging rank. Yes, in certain situations, it's advisable to avoid staring into a dog's eyes.
Introduction
Signs of Depression in Dogs
Boredom and lack of stimulation can lead to clingy behavior; increasing exercise and providing mental enrichment helps. Medical issues or pain may cause your dog to seek comfort—sudden clinginess plus symptoms like lethargy should prompt a vet visit.
An hour for a dog feels much longer than an hour for a human because dogs perceive time more slowly due to their faster metabolism and heightened awareness of routines, so a 10-minute wait can feel like 70 minutes to them, and your hour-long absence feels like an eternity, though they don't grasp clock time but rather the intervals between events like meals, walks, and your return.
Based on my research, dogs have an extraordinary sense of smell and emotional intuition, which allows them to detect changes in their environment and the people they know. At the cemetery, the dog likely recognized my mother's scent (her clothing specifically) and connected it with the emotional atmosphere.
Key signs 2 weeks before death at the end-of-life stages timeline: Extreme fatigue and increased sleep. A marked decrease in appetite and fluid intake. Irregular breathing patterns (Cheyne-Stokes breathing)
To say "I love you" in dog language, use soft eye contact, raise your eyebrows, give gentle massages (especially ears), lean into them, and engage in play or shared activities like walks, which build trust and affection through shared experiences and physical connection, releasing oxytocin for both of you.
Signs Your Dogs Can Sense the Supernatural
A red flag dog behavior signals deep fear, stress, or potential aggression, going beyond normal misbehavior, and includes intense growling/snapping without cause, sudden aggression in a calm dog, persistent hiding, resource guarding (food aggression), freezing, destructive behavior linked to separation anxiety, or signs of extreme anxiety like trembling, lip-licking, and tail-tucking, indicating underlying problems needing professional intervention.
The 3-3-3 rule for dogs is a guideline for the adjustment period after adoption, representing 3 days (overwhelmed/hiding), 3 weeks (settling in/testing boundaries), and 3 months (feeling at home/bonding) to help owners manage expectations and provide patience, routine, and a calm environment, understanding that anxiety is normal as they decompress from a stressful past. It's a framework for recognizing stress and fostering trust, not a rigid timeline, but it helps owners understand why a new dog might seem timid or act out initially.
Yes, some dog breeds are more prone to depressive behaviours based on their environments. Working dogs such as Border Collies, Huskies and German Shepherds can easily become bored and agitated without enough exercise and stimulation, and will show signs of lethargy and depression.
Quick Links
Dog Breeds Most Likely to Bite
A telltale sign that your dog is emotionally attached to you is if they want to join you for every part of your daily routine. Following you around: An emotionally attached dog will follow their human around the house from the moment they wake up, making sure that they are always within sight.
The "heartbreak breed" typically refers to the Great Dane, nicknamed this due to their loving nature combined with a significantly shorter lifespan (around 7-10 years) and predisposition to serious heart issues like Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM). Other breeds, like the Bernese Mountain Dog, are also called "heartbreak" dogs because of high cancer risks, while some owners find giant breeds or those with specific conditions, like Cavaliers and Pugs (heart issues), or Irish Wolfhounds (DCM), heartbreaking due to their health and mortality, despite their sweet disposition.
To show your dog you're the leader, provide calm, consistent structure through training, clear rules (like waiting before going through doors or eating), and leading on walks (dog beside or behind you). It's about confidence, not aggression, ensuring your dog feels secure in a balanced environment where you control resources and activities, not by overpowering them but by offering reliable guidance.
While there are exceptions to every rule, like Harry, the fact is that eye contact in dog language is very unfriendly and confrontational. While we as humans use eye contact as a way to connect with people, dogs often take this gesture as a threat.
In the first experiment the researchers collected urine from 30 dog-and-owner pairs before and after a 30-minute interaction. As in the earlier study, owners whose dogs showed the most gazing behavior had a notable increase in oxytocin concentration.