Is It Bad To Cry In Front Of Your Dog? Answered

Dogs are a susceptible group of animals. Not only do they detect your moods and emotional changes, but your moods also affect their personality. We are going to see what happens if you cry in front of your dog through this article.

Sometimes, our fluffies are the best emotional supporters whenever you hit rock bottom. Yet, if our emotions affect our innocent pets, is it okay to cry in front of them? Let’s find out.

Is it bad to cry in front of your dog? Not necessarily. It’s not harmful to be sad in front of your pet occasionally, but we don’t recommend frequent breakdowns in front of your dog because they sense every little change in you. It can affect your relationship with the dog in the long run.

Do Dogs Care If You Cry? 

Absolutely. Most dogs are really concerned about their family’s moods and emotions. When you’re in a happy mood, your pet will be bubbly and happy too. You’ll visibly see his happy mood through his actions. It’s the same the other way round, too. 

If your puppies detect that you’re sad and upset or you’re crying, they’ll first try to see what’s wrong. Your pet will roam around you, try to reach you with his hand, lick you all over and look at you with sad puppy dog eyes. He will literally not let you cry alone in peace. 

You’ll have to put all your upsets aside and settle down with your fluffy friend in the end. 

And there’s more. When your concerned pup sees you’re unhappy, they’ll volunteer to cheer you up. No matter what they are doing, the dog will be by your side, highly concerned about what’s wrong with you. He’ll bring his favorite toy to help you as well. 

But while most dogs care if you cry and feel upset, a minor proportion will ignore you. There are two possibilities: they simply do not care or understand your mood change or are too sad and anxious about your mood. 

As I explained, your mood can be contagious for your fluffy, and he’ll start reflecting on your emotions. But how? 

Your dog is always on alert about its surroundings. Moreover, his sensors are a thousand folds sharper than ours. Even the simplest, slightest change in your mood affects the hormones in your body; he can smell it.

And your behavior helps detect emotional changes, too. So even though our dogs are not as intelligent as humans, they know when someone’s happy or sad at first glance.

And believe me, dogs are more sincere and empathetic about us than that many people around us. 

Can Dogs Sense When You’re Crying? 

This question comes up naturally when trying to find out, “is it bad to cry in front of your dog?” 

As I explained earlier, your dog feels it when you’re crying. The endocrine system secretes different hormones whenever you’re experiencing an emotion. That’s how you know how to react to that particular emotion. 

Surprisingly, you won’t believe it if I tell you that your pet can smell these hormones. Other than your behavioral changes, this smell they detect helps them to ensure what your current mood is.

So if you’re concerned, “is it bad to cry in front of your dog?” you should know that our pets are excellent detectors of our moods. 

What Happens If You Cry In Front Of Your Dog?

Now, we’re entering the actual waters of the problem at hand. Knowing what happens will help you properly recognize whether or not it is bad to cry in front of your dog. 

First, there are two types of dogs—those that comfort their human when he’s distressed and those that leave.

To be honest, don’t hate your dog if he belongs to the second category; you can not be sure if they are anxious to approach you or not. Maybe your canine is sad himself watching you cry. 

Either way, as I mentioned initially, your moods and emotions hugely affect your pet. 

So what happens if you cry in front of your dog? Now that we know dogs can detect emotions properly, we need to expect their reaction to our moods.

Whenever your pooch sees you upset or crying, he’ll run to sniff, lick, rub at your body and even whimper sometimes. 

Further, don’t be surprised if he lets you play with his favorite play toy. When you’re feeling down, your pup will be so generous and do anything to cheer you back up.

Staring at you with a head tilted to one side is also common. Dogs adapt to your emotions. He’ll mimic and reflect the same behavior and mood that you go through.

Therefore it’s also common to see dogs whimpering, barking, and acting hectic when they see you’re crying.

How Do Dogs React To Crying? 

When trying to figure out whether it is bad to cry in front of your dog, examining his reaction is the best way to do this. This four-legged friend will indeed do anything to move up your mood. But, I repeat this. 

You’re his trainer and best friend. If you keep breaking down in front of your doggo frequently, this relationship will get affected in the long run.

Also, because your actions affect your dog, he’ll be constantly anxious if you break down in front of the dog daily. It could badly affect his mental health too. 

I know that having your best friend by your side at hard times will help you immensely. Yet you need to be strong before your dog.

If his trainer always breaks down, how do you think he’ll feel? Therefore it’s okay to be sad in front of your dog occasionally but not frequently. 

Dogs work in the medical field as service dogs who help people who need emotional help. Those dogs are trained to detect mood changes faster and act accordingly.

They are trained to be strong, and it doesn’t affect the dog’s emotional well-being when people cry or be upset before them. They will help the patients overcome that hard time.

But, if your dog hasn’t had any kind of training like that, it’s not wise to use them as emotional support whenever you need it. 

So here we are at the end of concluding the answer to the FAQ “is it okay to cry in front of your dog?”. The final answer to your question is yes, it’s okay. But don’t overdo it. It affects your doggo’s mentality and the relationship you share with him.

Thank you for reading this post. Stay tuned with Jack Russell Owner for more interesting posts about your favorite dog breed. Cheers!!