It’s said that if a person really pays attention to you, they’ll return a yawn when you yawn. Close relationships are friendships are more likely to have a yawn-returning understanding between them. But not only humans return yawns, your loyal pup would also do the same in the majority of the cases.
According to some tests conducted in a closed environment on 25 dogs of different breeds, dogs are highly-likely to return yawns. But why do dogs do that? I’ve got the answer for you.
Simply put, they love you.
Yawns are contagious. That means if you see or listen to a yawn, you’re very likely to do the same. Even reading and writing about yawns could trigger an irresistible urge to yawn. Furthermore, this contagious behavior is more likely to trigger if the person you saw yawning is close to you. You’re more likely to return someone’s yawn whom you love.
As you’re aware, dogs love their human partners. The love of a dog for its owner is beyond measurable. If a human who loves you is more likely to return your yawn, rather than a stranger, then why wouldn’t your dog return it? It’s safe to say that the probability of returning a yawn is directly proportional to the amount of love the returner has. If your dog loves you more than anything else in the world, it just makes sense that it would yawn when you do.
Why do dogs yawn when you stroke them?
A yawn could be resulting from several reasons. Here’s one of them; when a person or dog tries to calm down or relax, they’re very likely to yawn. Yawning could be linked to several biological phenomenons including stretching your mouth and throat, maintaining brain temperature, bringing in more oxygen to the lungs, and others.
Situations, where a living organism tries to calm down or relax, are likely to trigger a yawn. When you stroke your dog, it feels relaxed and tries to calm down. This feeling of relaxation and calmness would most-likely make your dog yawn.
Is yawning a sign of stress in dogs?
As mentioned earlier, a yawn could result from several triggering factors. Sometimes, when a dog feels threatened but doesn’t want to get involved in a conflict, it will yawn. This behavior is accompanied by some other lazy gestures like turning its head away and breaking the eye-contact.
As threatening situations are directly related to stress, it can be said that certain yawns could be a potential sign of stress in dogs. But bear in mind that you don’t have to worry about your dog being stressed every time it yawns, especially when it’s not facing any threats directly or indirectly.
