Does YOUR dog sense when your sick?..

arybvtcw0eolkf

Just wondering.

I'm down with a virus at the moment, have been since last Thursday - with the mother & father of ear aches to boot.

Anyway, evertime I'm sick my older lad seem's to sense it and won't leave my side, gives me really soft, gentle looks - you know that big soft doggie eyes!.

Has anyone else experienced similar?.

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easyeason3

Yeah, my sisters dog does the same to her & me if there is something up. It usually involves becoming my shadow & rubbing a wet nose on my face or hand.
It's actually the sweetest thing.
Makes you wonder how people can be cruel to animals when you experience a bit of doggy sympathy.

Big Ears

I remember when I had stitches in my knee when I was young my dog kept trying to lick around the area affected(it was covered thankfully ) and wouldn't leave my side either.

I really miss that dog

Latchy

Yes my dog is very sensitive to my emotional and physical ailments .

He will let out a low whine when he thinks I'm upset or distressed about anything ( even when I put it on )

What I do find amazing is that of all the theme tunes for soaps and intro tunes for programmes ,only one makes him ' prick up ' his ears and twist his head sideways until it ends, and that is the Coronation street theme tune .This includes the break in between .Nothing else but only this sound ( apart from dogs barking on tv ) will make him sit up and take notice .

Weird

arybvtcw0eolkf

easyeason3 wrote: »

Makes you wonder how people can be cruel to animals when you experience a bit of doggy sympathy.

Never a truer word said here.

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DancingDaisy

When I'm ill, my mum's dog gets up on my knee and puts his little head on my shoulder and goes sleep. I think he tries to keep you warm.

easyeason3

Mairt wrote: »

Never a truer word said here.

.

Unfortunately it happens but because your dog senses when you're ill or feeling a bit down basically means that he/ she couldn't be treated better. So it's like getting a little paw on the back from them to say thanks for all you've done & they'll look after you too.
It doesn't get much better than that to be honest.

fiona-f

Any dogs we've ever had have always done this too. It's the sweetest thing in the world.

We currently have a (neutered) three-year old bitch and she is amazingly kind and gentle with pregnant women - a lot of our friends are at that stage of their lives now and our dog is so sweet to them; she will sit right in between the feet of any pregnant visitors with her head on their knee, gazing between their face and their belly, even if they don't have a bump yet. So cute, and entirely different to her normally exciteable behaviour whenever we have visitors! I have no idea how she senses it, and due to the dog's behaviour, I figured out that one friend was pregnant a fortnight before she told us herself!

easyeason3

fiona-f wrote: »

Any dogs we've ever had have always done this too. It's the sweetest thing in the world.

We currently have a (neutered) three-year old bitch and she is amazingly kind and gentle with pregnant women - a lot of our friends are at that stage of their lives now and our dog is so sweet to them; she will sit right in between the feet of any pregnant visitors with her head on their knee, gazing between their face and their belly, even if they don't have a bump yet. So cute, and entirely different to her normally exciteable behaviour whenever we have visitors! I have no idea how she senses it, and due to the dog's behaviour, I figured out that one friend was pregnant a fortnight before she told us herself!

Ah the little dote! That is one of the cutest things I have ever heard.
What kind of dog is she?

Futurism

Definitely. I'm sick now too Mairt and my dog has been sitting by my side and following me around all day. (Well more than usual)

peasant

to slightly burst your bubbles there ...

Yes, dogs do sense when we are sick/not our usual selves and they may even sympathise/empathise to a certain degree ...but mostly they are worried why it is that their routine has been disturbed and have they fallen out of favour for some yet unkown reason, so they try to be as "good" as they can, just in case it was their fault

I have no idea how she senses it

just the way a pregnancy test would ...hormones ...only the dog can smell them without a stick going blue.

fiona-f

easyeason3 wrote: »

Ah the little dote! That is one of the cutest things I have ever heard.
What kind of dog is she?

We're not really sure, a rescue doggy. She's probably half boxer, and your guess is as good as mine for the other half!

easyeason3

fiona-f wrote: »

We're not really sure, a rescue doggy. She's probably half boxer, and your guess is as good as mine for the other half!

You're my hero! I'd love to get a rescue dog but unfortunately where I live at the moment isn't suitable at all so I'd probably be putting the dog in danger rather than giving him/ her a proper home, I live beside a very busy road & the garden is communal with no wall or fencing. As soon as I move though I'll be heading down to my local rescue centre as fast as my legs will carry me.

Thanks to Mairt for creating this thread & to other posters for making me smile this evening

00112984

I think my dog just notices when she's not getting the same level of attention as usual and, as Peasant said, tries to behave to get back on my good side.

Saying that, my husband was using the grill earlier and there was smoke everywhere (fire alarm went off after a minute) and the pooch got visibly upset and scrambled onto my lap and sat on my head.

IvySlayer

Dogs are just amazing. I think only dog owners can truly understand the bond. If you're not well they will know. I think constant coughing, sneezing, vomiting makes them know something is out of the ordinary.

In wolf packs, if a wolf is injured or sick, or if they are a mother with babies, others members will bring some food to him/her.

A cat would never do this, but a dog will stay by your side.

arybvtcw0eolkf

peasant wrote: »

to slightly burst your bubbles there ...

Yes, dogs do sense when we are sick/not our usual selves and they may even sympathise/empathise to a certain degree ...

I thought you were going to tell us our dogs see when (when we're sick) as weak and vunerable and were preparing to kill & eat us!..

Sean Quagmire

Latchy wrote: »

What I do find amazing is that of all the theme tunes for soaps and intro tunes for programmes ,only one makes him ' prick up ' his ears and twist his head sideways until it ends, and that is the Coronation street theme tune .This includes the break in between .Nothing else but only this sound ( apart from dogs barking on tv ) will make him sit up and take notice .

Weird

Funny that, although not related to being sick, when my dog hears the coronation street tune she'l come scampering up to someone's feet from her bed because its walk time. You can see how un-impressed she is when she realises its just the break but she comes back 15mins later

The Sweeper

One of my cats has strong empathy for me when I'm upset. He's not a lapcat - he outgrew my lap at just over a year so subsequently while he'll sit near you on the sofa, he's not usually interested in cuddles. However, if I'm very upset, I'll get more physical contact in a few hours from him than I'll have had in the previous month!

I got some bad news about the death of a family member yesterday, so spent most of the day upset. I'm sitting on the floor being weepy, Frankie comes up to me miaowing, he walks into my lap and walks his front feet up my chest and rubs his face off mine. He's done this before when he caught me being weepy about a year ago.

I spent the rest of the day on the couch with a blanket over me, and he spent most of it on and off sitting on or with me on the couch, purring. I have five cats, and the eldest and the youngest both do the cat thing where if you're stroking them they go to stroke you back, so they reach up for your face with their paws. He was doing that yesterday as well.

I've no idea why he does it, but it's terribly sweet and it did make me feel better.