There was a quite curious phenomenon I noticed with our dog, Rocket, that took place while I was in the last days of my previous job. I could see at that point that things weren’t going to work out for me but I still continued to forge ahead and do my best. This put me under unbelievable stress, the likes I’d never felt before. The day before I lost my job I was such a nervous wreck that I could barely speak.
At this very same time, Rocket began to repeatedly smack his lips. Not just once, though, he did it all day long, something he’s never done before. I joked at the time that he must have gotten into some peanut butter or something, but in looking back I had an interesting thought.
Rocket smacks his lips when he’s feeling stressed. At the time I was feeling more stress than I ever had before. Was our dog simply reacting to the stress I was feeling? I never found any evidence he had eaten something he shouldn’t have, nor did I treat our dog any differently than usual. I can’t help but wonder if there might be something to the theory that dogs are innately attuned to moods of their masters.
Our companions are very in tune with us, often times more so than we are with them.