The headline that caught my eye was, “Dog Thief Arrested After Helicopter Pursuit.” I thought, “Wow! That’s a terrific response to a dog-napping!” But when I read the article, I realized that the story was darker than the headline seemed to suggest.

You see, the article wasn’t actually about a dog-napping; it was about a man who was arrested after violating a protection order and threatening a 26-year-old woman at her home, and then taking her dog. Several people called 911 after witnessing the man threatening the woman, and reported that the man had a gun and left in a car. When the responding officers couldn’t find the woman, they initiated a search for the car and, upon spotting it, initiated a pursuit. They discontinued the pursuit as the vehicle was being driven recklessly, but after the driver crashed the car, a law-enforcement helicopter spotted the man and followed him until he was apprehended. He was charged with domestic violence felony harassment, domestic violence theft in the third degree (for the theft of the woman’s dog), unlawful possession of a firearm, driving with a suspended license, hit-and-run of an attended vehicle, domestic violence violation of a no contact order, and obstruction. (According to the article, the woman was found and the dog returned to her, and both are “OK.” I would submit that “OK” is probably an inadequate description of how the woman is likely to feel, even if she and her dog were not physically harmed.)

People who commit domestic violence rarely abuse only the people with whom they have been in a relationship; they often target anyone or anything that their victims care about, and frequently this includes pets who belong to their victims. Consider these facts, compiled by RedRover, a national animal welfare nonprofit:

• 71% of women in domestic violence shelters report their abuser threatened, injured, or killed a pet. (Source: National Coalition Against Domestic Violence)
• Nearly half of victims stay with an abuser rather than leave their pet behind. (Source: Carlisle-Frank, Frank and Nielsen (2004), Pets as Pawns.)
• 52% of survivors in shelters leave their pets with the abusers. (Source: National Coalition Against Domestic Violence)
• As many as 25% of survivors will return because the abuser is using their pet as a means to get the person back. (Source: ASPCA)

Fortunately, there is a growing number of organizations that provide support to pet-owning victims of domestic violence, and others who are working to help domestic-violence shelters become pet-friendly. If victims have resources that can safely accommodate their pets, they are more likely to seek help and shelter for themselves.

• Only an estimated 18% of domestic violence shelters allow the people they admit to bring their pets. Since 2019, Purina has invested over $2 million through its Purple Leash Project and partnership with RedRover to help domestic violence shelters make the changes needed to accept pets. When Purina and RedRover began this work only 4 percent of shelters accepted pets. However, through the Purple Leash Project, and over $500,000 in grants awarded last year alone, 18 percent of domestic violence shelters are now pet-friendly. But there’s more work to be done. Purina’s goal to help ensure at least 25 percent of domestic violence shelters become pet-friendly by 2025.
• RedRover’s Relief Safe Escape grant program helps families with pets safely escape domestic violence together. Funding is mainly provided to help with the cost of temporary pet boarding while a survivor is in a domestic violence shelter, though other costs associated with boarding (like vaccinations) can be considered. Assistance does not typically cover pet boarding once the survivor has moved from the safe house into transitional housing.
• Greater Good Charities and RedRover have teamed up to create effective and sustainable programs for people and pets in crisis. Their expert team works with organizations around the country to help build pet-inclusive housing programs that keep families together. See Don’tForgetThePets.org for more information.
• Sheltering Animals and Families Together (SAF-T) maintains a state-by-state list of domestic violence shelters that accept people with pets.
• The National Domestic Violence Hotline has information about how to include pets in a plan to escape from an abuser.
• The Animal Welfare Institute maintains a guide to teach advocates and attorneys who represent pet-owning domestic violence survivors, to teach the advocates how to get the pets of domestic-violence survivors included in domestic violence protection orders. The guide is tailored for the laws in California—but may be helpful as a model for attorneys in other states.

If you or someone you know is in an unsafe or abusive relationship and concern about their pets is preventing them from getting help, please share these resources with them. You just may help them save their lives—and those of their beloved animal companions.

Most dog owners don’t need a scientific study to tell them that dogs can pick up on—and be affected by—the emotions of the humans around them. If I’m having a rough day, I can fully expect to find a chin on my knee and big, worried brown eyes gazing up at me. Even if I think I’m hiding my stress well, maintaining a normal routine, and interacting with my dogs as I usually do, the dogs respond.

It makes sense that my dogs would know me well enough to catch on to my emotional state. We live our lives together and I’m their primary handler and caregiver—they’ve had plenty of time to figure out what’s normal for me. But how quickly do dogs pick up on stress in someone they don’t know? Pretty darn quickly from what I’ve seen. Just watch a therapy dog at work.

Beyond my anecdotal observations, canine responses to human stress were documented in a recent study led by the University of Bristol. Published in July 2024, the study found that “dogs experience emotional contagion from the smell of human stress, leading them to make more ‘pessimistic’ choices.”

To determine ‘optimistic’ and ‘pessimistic’ reactions, researchers started by teaching the dogs participating in the study that a food bowl placed in one location always had a treat in it while a bowl placed in another location was always empty. From there, they put bowls in spots between the two original locations and waited to see how quickly the dogs went to go check the new bowls for treats. According to the study, “a quick approach reflected ‘optimism’ about food being present in these ambiguous locations—a marker of a positive emotional state—whilst a slow approach indicated ‘pessimism’ and negative emotion.”

Trials were then done to see how quickly the dogs approached a bowl in an ambiguous location when there were no additional scents present and after the dogs were exposed to “sweat and breath samples from humans in either a stressed (arithmetic test) or relaxed (listening to soundscapes) state.”

Researchers found that dogs exposed to the smell of stressed human were slower to approach ambiguously located bowls, especially those nearer the empty bowl location. The smell of relaxed human seemed to have no effect. Interestingly, the study noted that “the team also found that dogs continued to improve their learning about the presence or absence of food in the two trained bowl locations and that they improved faster when the stress smell was present.”

“Dog owners know how attuned their pets are to their emotions, but here we show that even the odour of a stressed, unfamiliar human affects a dog’s emotional state, perception of rewards, and ability to learn,” says the paper’s lead author, Dr. Nicola Rooney. “Working dog handlers often describe stress travelling down the lead, but we’ve also shown it can also travel through the air.”

While the study’s conclusions didn’t surprise me, I found it to be a good reminder to pay attention to how much stress my dogs may be picking up from me and other people around them. While stress is often unavoidable, it’s worth remembering that, especially if things have been unusually tense for a few days, it may be time for a quiet walk around the neighborhood, gentle brushing, or other calming activity. It’ll be good for dog and human both.

Earlier this week, I spent an hour with a lovely woman who bought an 8-week-old purebred puppy a month ago. She was at her wits’ end, she said. She wanted the puppy to stop constantly biting, stop digging in the backyard, stop jumping up on family members, and to stop grabbing things, like curtains and knickknacks on tables and shelves.

As I observed the puppy and surreptitiously worked to teach her to sit and lay down as I asked my client questions and listened to her describe all the things the puppy was doing that were vexing, I heard her say these things:

“Our last dog practically trained himself.”

“Our last dog never used his teeth on us, even as a very young puppy! This one draws blood on our arms or hands daily!”

“Our last dog would never dream of grabbing things off the side tables, or any table!”

“Our last dog was never a barker. Maybe one woof if someone was at the door, and that’s all.”

The “last dog” in question had died a few years ago, but his memory was alive and well—and was quite unfairly affecting my client’s relationship with this new puppy.

Maybe the last dog really was perfect—some dogs and puppies really are a dream, and adapt to life in our homes with hardly a toenail put wrong. But I tend to believe that by the time our dogs have lived a long life, and then passed away, we simply fail to remember any anxiety or trouble that they ever gave us. Oh, we may remember a funny quirk or two, something that they learned to do in a unique way, like barking at our laundry as it tumbled around in the glass-doored dryer, or chasing the shadows of passersby on the sidewalk at sunset, as those shadows are cast moving along our living room wall. These behaviors are remembered fondly, with humor—unlike the painful or messy behaviors we are dealing with our new naughty puppy. At some point, our “last dogs” become our sainted, perfect last dogs.

Here’s what I told my client: No dog is perfect. All dogs are different. This one is just a baby—and a stranger—whereas your “last perfect dog” was an adult with a long learning history that you’ve perhaps forgotten in the glow of your love for him and the pain of missing him.

I asked my client whether she had kids. Yes, two girls, she said, adults now. I asked, “Are they very different from each other?” She laughed and took the bait. “Oh my gosh yes,” she said. “One was solemn as a judge, it was like pulling teeth to get her to talk to me. The other one told me more than I ever wanted to know. When she called me from her honeymoon and said, ‘Mom, I have to tell you something,’ I told her ‘No! I don’t want to know!!’”

We had a huge laugh about that.

And then I brought her back to the puppy and Saint Last Dog. “Well, then, that’s how you know that we can’t blame this puppy for not being as easy as your last dog. She’s not a dud; I wouldn’t even say she’s naughty! But some dogs take more of our time and attention and patience to train than others, just like some of our kids take a lot longer and are harder to bring into responsible adulthood than others!”

Also, I told her, “All of the behaviors you described as so naughty are super typical puppy behaviors—and I can teach you how to manage them and direct her into behaviors you like better! But first we have to accept the idea that she’s actually quite a good puppy!” And by this time, I had the puppy offering sits and downs and lying calmly on the rug in front of us as we talked. I had started with using tiny bits of freeze-dried chicken treats to lure her into a down and then back up into sits, and then tossing the treats to send her away, and giving her tiny treats when she came back for more and sat politely without a lure. I hadn’t used a verbal cue, so the client barely noticed I was training her dog at all. And yet, there she was, lying quietly on the rug watching us.

She looked at the puppy as if she just noticed her there in the room for the first time. “My gosh!” she said. “How on earth did you do that?”

And with the discovery of the fact that this puppy, too, had the potential for greatness in her, we were able to get to work building the foundation of their new relationship—with no disrespect for the perfect last dog whatsoever.

If there is one thing that growing up around a breeding kennel has taught me it’s that every dog is an individual. In my experience, it’s possible to make some guesses about future behavior based on the breed of the dog, the temperament of the parents, the skills that run in the genetic line, and so on—that’s what selective breeding is all about—but there are still so many unknowns that go into how a specific dog acts and what she might need. At the end of the day, the trick to being a good steward to the dogs in your care is to pay attention to the dog in front of you rather than assuming she will act a certain way based on her breed.

While this has long been a discussion around the family dinner table, it came to mind again this week when I ran across a call for participants for a dog breed behavior study. The goal of the study, which will be conducted by Harvard University’s Canine Brains Project, is to investigate “behavioral traits in dogs from different breeds and lineages.” The data will be gathered via experiments designed to “emulate situations that dogs regularly encounter in their daily lives, including meeting a new person, interacting with their human, and solving food puzzles.”

“While it is commonly acknowledged that different dog breeds exhibit varying temperaments and behaviors, scientific research in this area remains surprisingly sparse,” the project says in its description of the study. “The Canine Brains Project aims to address this gap in knowledge with our Dog Breed Behavior Study.”

The description of the experiments to be conducted suggests that the study will focus primarily on personality traits like sociability, reactivity, communicativeness, and critical thinking ability rather than skills-based behaviors such as herding, tracking, or retrieving. To me, this divide is interesting in that it seems to set aside whether breed affects how well a dog can perform a specific task in favor of asking how much (if at all) breed determines temperament. As a side note, the Canine Brains Project is also doing research on how the dogs from historically working breeds use their brains that I can’t wait to see the results from.

There was a separate study, published in 2022, looking at how genetics might shape complex behavioral traits in dogs, which proposed that behaviors “perceived as characteristic of modern breeds” actually come from thousands of years of adaptation predating the formation of those breeds with “modern breeds distinguished primarily by aesthetic traits.” Interestingly, the study also noted that for “more heritable, more breed-differentiated traits, like biddability (responsiveness to direction and commands), knowing breed ancestry can make behavioral predictions somewhat more accurate” while for “less heritable, less breed-differentiated traits, like agonistic threshold (how easily a dog is provoked by frightening or uncomfortable stimuli), breed is almost uninformative.”

So how much of a dog’s personality can be attributed to her breed or family line? Anecdotally, I have met both timid Airedales and bold ones. The breed has a reputation for being aloof with strangers, but quite a few I’ve known have been gregarious lap dogs. I have also seen personality traits that show up in generation after generation of related dogs.

While no one scientific study is determinative—valid scientific research must be repeatable, objective, and broad (or narrow) enough to reasonably answer the question at hand—I’ll be interested to see what information the Canine Brains Project study brings to the conversation.