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As you enter any room filled with people, your dog has already flattened their ears or quietly left the space. They sensed something and they responded fast, much faster than you did.

There are no coincidences with dogs, dogs are masters of supple and social cures while us humans are busy processing verbal language and devising our own responses or getting tangled up in our own internal monologues, canines are doing something much more primal and in some ways more effective and that is they are reading energy, they are reading emotion and what’s called micro-behaviours and they’re doing it in real time, much better than you will ever do it.

Dog’s social intelligence goes beyond simple obedience or eye contact. For thousands of years canines have evolved alongside humans to become super expert observers of our emotional states and whilst they may not know what that is, they are aware of the emotions, they are aware of the energy we put out and in many ways, they have become better at noticing our own moods and our mood shifts than we do.

There is a science, an evolution and emotional brilliance behind this remarkable ability.

What is social intelligence in canines?

In the canine world, social intelligence is the capacitor to process, interpret and respond to and dogs influence the emotions and behaviours of others. In humans it’s linked with empathy, diplomacy and leadership and in dogs it’s expressed in body language, mainly in body language, responsiveness and environmental awareness.

Because canines live amongst us in our own homes in a domestic scenario, more so than any other animal around the world, apart from cats, they have developed and evolved unlike many other animals have.

Canines have developed a cross species social intelligence which means they’re not just good with other dogs but have finely tuned antennas and their understanding of human social behaviour is vast. Canines are experts at observing this especially the energy shifts and changes in our behaviour. Obviously, they haven’t got analytical abilities like humans have but they notice shifts and changes.

Canine psychology has proven that dogs can read facial expressions and they recognise through repetition and association, angry, sad or happy faces.

They specifically respond to changing tones of voice or tonality of speech including the music or melody of speech.

Although this area is controversial, many experienced dog owners will agree that dogs do pick up on our own emotional feelings called emotional contagion and basically feel what we feel.

The science is also identified that canines can smell hormone or hormonal changes within humans which has clearly been proven when dogs can pick up diseases and infections such as Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s along with the skills of canine sniffer or detection dogs.

The smell receptors in dogs which is connected to the highly tuned senses in the brain can smell and detect an increase in cortisol which is your stress scent and adrenaline or oxytocin love chemicals. When you shift into anger all of a sudden, the dog may detect that like a gust of wind and most dog owners will know that and often turn to the dog and say, ‘it’s all right’ ‘it’s all right’ it’s not you . . . We have all done that, right?

Dogs’ shortcut to empathy

Canines are one of the very few animals to have what’s called co-evolved with humans over tens of thousands of years which is mainly due to our specific and special love bond we have with them or in other words they live with us and they sleep with us as opposed to other animals living out in nature or the wilderness.

Canine survival was not just based on hunting or guarding but specifically and successfully interpreting the behaviour of the human companions for survival.

Evolution puts pressure on the development of the dogs and has raised social observation abilities which was required in fight or flight scenarios including hunting for food and their survival.

Domestication of empathy like behaviours and sensitivity to human moods and intentions which often result in rewards and sometimes punishment from humans.

Scientific studies have shown that dogs can integrate visual and auditory cues to interpret our human emotions. Dogs don’t just react to our lovely smiles they also associate it with tonality of speech, your tone of voice along with your body posture to gauge your intent. This develops through repetition and that a dog can see a certain behaviour or an action, a sound associated to a reward or a treat or even going for a walk.

Many dog owners may not believe this but the dog doesn’t just see that you’re upset, they actually know how it feels.

Humans think a lot, we are actually deep thinkers all of us are. And while that’s often a strength to us it also makes us prone to filtering and rationalising or ignoring our own emotional intuitions. Dogs however don’t have that filter. Their perception and attention are fully tuned in to the here and now and it’s part of their evolution and especially their survival. Their awareness and attention are perfect at any given moment.

Reasons why dogs read the room better than you.

They’re not distracted by human chatter or language, emails, radio or television activity like we are.

They live in current sensory immersion, constantly tracking smells, engaging in sights and sounds and persistently pursuing altering energies and emerging appearing experiences whatever that may be, in comparison to what humans are capable of doing. Many things are passing us by in the periphery of our vision and we’re only registering what we need to register whereas a dog will register everything that enters its awareness.

The canine survival has historically depended on tuning into what’s called group dynamics the successful survival of the species.

The truth is your dog might not know why you’re irritated after that telephone call but they do definitely know that you are irritated and often react similarly to when they have done something wrong and may feel as though it’s something to do with them. Most dog owners can relate to this.

For example, you’ll have some kind of argument in your kitchen and voices raise and before anything escalates your dog sits themselves physically between you and the other person, often with their tail lowered and their ears back with a frightening look in their eyes, they know and that’s called emotional intervention not just fear.

They’re actually trying to diffuse the tension between you and the other person and studies have shown dogs exhibit appeasement behaviours and this is an exact example of an appeasement behaviour during human conflict of any kind where the dog sometimes nudges people or makes whining or wincing noises to draw attention away from the stressor, the stressor being anything that is causing this situation.

Even within therapeutic settings, trained dogs have been known to detect oncoming panic attacks before a person feels symptoms because they’re giving out a specific frequency and dogs are in tune to the changing atmosphere which is surrounded by energy fields of activity. Dogs can warn their diabetic owners about their drops in blood sugar/glucose through body smell changes. This is called refined instinctive perception!

There’s an ongoing debate within the scientific canine world about whether dogs are experiencing a true form of empathy or if they are just simply mirroring our own human behaviours.

Emotional contagion is when the canine feels what we feel like yawning, when we yawn.

Empathy is when the dog understands what we are feeling and alter their own behaviours in a compassionate way.

Most canine psychologists and canine experts in this field agree that dogs do exhibit rudimentary empathy.

Sensing the nonverbal

The scent of emotion is one of the least understood in the canine world and one of the most powerful tools dogs use within their nose. Emotions have a chemical signature within all of us and stress does increase cortisol and that releases adrenaline and bonding boosts oxytocin. These hormonal changes within us produce supple chemical outputs through sweat and saliva and also our breath.

Dogs detect these micro changes from several meters away and can literally smell your emotional states.

This actually makes canines better at detecting lies than lie detectors or human lie detectors who read body language and is better at sniffing out sadness than most therapists. They have a built-in truth radar which can’t be manipulated because it’s biological not psychological and it’s not prone to analytical judgments or preferences, called bias.

Dogs in the social arena

In group settings dogs act like intuitive diplomats. They know who’s upset before anyone speaks and they’ll gravitate towards vulnerable people and avoid aggressive energy or quietly leave chaotic spaces and we’ve all seen this as dog owners.

This isn’t random or chance, it’s called pattern recognition built from constant observation. Through persistence dogs in the household often mediate between family conflicts, always intervening especially comforting crying children and warn of uncommon illnesses or emotional breakdowns.

Dogs often avoid toxic individuals long before we consciously recognise it in them. They detect bad malevolent intentions or negative energy. Dogs can work out a bad person before you ever knew it.

How can you learn from your dog?

We can learn emotional intelligence from our dogs by observing how they react and we can become more attuned ourselves the way they are.

Here’s an example of an experiment you can conduct yourself.

When you are in a group setting, carefully note who your dog approaches and specifically who your dog avoids. You may not notice it at first because you may just see a dog moving around the room, but just take a look at who your dog won’t go near and who your dog will go near.

Take specific note of how their behaviour shifts and alters before you even speak during emotional moments.

Practice what’s called co-regulation by calming yourself with your dog.

Carefully observe minute changes in their breathing, posture or expression when emotions run high sometimes, you’ll see their ears going up and down and their ears and eyes darting around as if to look for a safer place.

Final word

The next time your dog slinks slowly away before a heated exchange as it detects altering tones in speech or if it places their paw on your lap and when you’re holding it together a little too tightly, don’t ignore it, the dog needs acknowledgement too.

Your dog has not been dramatic or overly sensitive.

They are being very accurate!

Now do you believe that your dog can read the room better than you?

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