More important than providing a big house and yard for our dogs is providing an environment of love and joy. This helps keep their heart healthy and in sync with yours. A dog living their best and longest life lies within your very own heart. — Erica Marie Coston, dog herbalist
Canine holistic herbalism centers on the mind-body-spirit connection, and that includes the vibrations we share with our dogs. Research has shown that dogs respond to human emotions, and even take them on physically.
As we know, dogs have heightened senses, making them especially sensitive to smells. When humans are stressed, they give off hormones like oxytocin, and dogs can literally smell them! I’ve observed many cases of this over the years, and it fascinates me and fine tunes my awareness of how I speak to and speak about my animals.
With their keen senses, our dogs constantly interpret our emotions and our interactions with our environment. Like humans, dogs want to feel safe. When we don’t feel safe, neither do they. I once worked with a woman whose dog suffered from anxiety. As it turns out, my client was anxious, and that anxiety was spilling over to her sweet pup. Unintentionally, my client’s stress became her dog’s stress. We started working with flower essences and body language so that both my client and her dog could become more relaxed and less anxious.
The HeartMath Institute studies the physical and emotional aspects of heart intelligence. One of the things they’ve discovered is that our emotions affect the manner in which the body harmonizes the heart’s electromagnetic output.
The heart puts out a strong electromagnetic field; it’s approximately five thousand times stronger than that of the brain and can be detected more than two feet from the body in most cases. This is a vibrational field of moving particles, even if we can’t see them moving. Like the wind, the heart’s field may not be able to be seen, but it definitely exists, and it’s one way in which we interact with those around us — including our dogs.
Dogs can physically experience your emotions through their own heart and nervous system. Your dog’s heart is controlled by its autonomic nervous system, which switches between parasympathetic (rest and relaxation) and sympathetic activity (fight or flight), as your dog interacts with their environment. The act of switching back and forth has a profound effect on the heart; we see it in a dog’s heart rate variability.
Emotions, too, affect the rate at which the heart and nervous system switch back and forth from reaction to relaxation. Prolonged emotional relationships have an even more profound impact on your and your dog’s mind-body-spirit connection, and can have measurable physical effects.
Science has proven that both positive and negative emotions can affect the heart’s electromagnetic field. What we do in our environment directly affects our dog’s emotional and physical health, whether we like it or not. I’m reminded of animal behaviorist Temple Grandin’s work, and how she encourages people to focus on joy around their animals and limit feelings of fear, anger, grief, and panic as much as possible.
I don’t share this information to make you feel guilty for being negative or even angry around your dog; it’s meant to help you be mindful of your mood and tone. Having a bad day here and there isn’t going to harm your dog, but having consistent emotional displays of anger, resentment, regret or jealousy can eventually take its toll. These feelings can put you into fight-or-flight mode. Your stress directly affects your dog’s stress, and as is the case for humans, a dog with chronic stress is at risk of a wide range of health issues, including in the all-important microbiome.
The bond between dogs and owners can be so profound that sometimes dogs take on their owner’s illnesses. In her book Emotional Freedom, Dr. Judith Orloff shared the story of a woman with a rare kidney disease, who became pregnant against her doctor’s warning. To the doctor’s surprise, she made it through the pregnancy and gave birth to a healthy baby. Unfortunately, during the same period, her golden retriever, whom the woman was extremely close to, came down with sudden-onset kidney disease and passed away shortly after the baby’s birth.
This is just one example of possible emotional transference. This is the subject of much study right now as science learns more and more about the shared energy between humans and dogs. The beautiful takeaway here is that you can have a positive effect on your dog by working on your own physical and emotional health. When you relax and bring down your stress levels, your dog can relax too.
Excerpt from The Herbal Dog: Holistic Canine Herbalism Applications and Practice by Rita Hogan, © 2025 Healing Arts Press. Printed with permission from the publisher Inner Traditions International.
Rita Hogan, C.H., is a clinical canine herbalist with more than twenty years of experience specializing in holistic canine herbalism. An educator, speaker, writer, and herbal medicine maker, she lives and practices in Olympia, Washington.
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