This Is What Dogs Really Miss When Owners Leave The House

Every time this dog owner prepares to leave the house, her pet Luna tries to come with her. It is like she experiences FOMO, the fear of missing out! We would like to believe that our pets actually miss us, rather than missing out on what’s outside. Our dogs really miss us when we are gone? Watch this video to find out!Show more

First of all we need to think about relationships. Humans miss other humans because we have an emotional connection to each them. We have the capacity to bond and love, and so do dogs. It is just little too hard to figure out how dogs love us. One scientist trained dogs to willingly go into an MRI machine and stay there, so he cans study their brain and behavior. Can dogs have FOMO?

In one of his studies, he gave the dogs 5 scents, their own scent, the scent of a familiar and a strange human, and the scent of a familiar and a strange dog. What they found was that a certain brain region involved in positive expectations and reward was activated by the scent of the familiar human. The dogs had positive association with that person.

However, it is difficult to say whether dogs miss their owners when they leave or if they just miss familiar company. Another study looked at how dogs’ behavior changed around people with different degrees of familiarity, their owner, another familiar person and an unfamiliar person. They found that dogs preferred their owner. In one of the tests dogs would wait behind the door that their owner went through and not the other people. However, owners often wonder whether their pet knows how long they have been gone, i.e. whether they have a perception of time. Watch this video to find out!