Just as with other humans, understanding the emotional states of companion animals like dogs can help us care for them more effectively. But how good are we at reading what dogs are feeling? And what kinds of information do we use to make those judgments?

Past research on the topic has focused on dog facial expressions, with findings suggesting that people believe dogs experience many of the same basic emotions as humans. But we don’t typically judge emotional states from facial expressions alone — context matters. For example, people may describe the exact same human facial expression as showing disgust if it’s paired with a dirty diaper or sadness if it’s seen in a graveyard. Previously, no one had studied whether our perceptions of dog emotions are similarly influenced by situational context.

To explore this, researchers conducted two experiments using videos of dogs in emotionally charged situations. All studies were conducted online with U.S. college student samples. In the first experiment, participants viewed short video clips of a dog in either positive (e.g., being praised or given a treat) or negative (e.g., being reprimanded or exposed to a scary object) situations. Sometimes the context was included — such as the human actor and the object causing the dog’s reaction — and sometimes it was removed, so that only the dog was visible.

In general, when participants saw the full context, they could distinguish between the positive and negative situations. However, when the context was removed, the average group ratings of the dog’s emotional state didn’t discriminate between positive and negative situations. This suggests that most people may not be able to identify a dog’s emotions from body cues and behavior alone — they need to see the full picture.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that people who had more experience with dogs were actually less likely to identify negative emotional states. Also of interest, those in a better mood themselves were more likely to rate the dog’s emotion as more positive. This suggests that both experience and current emotional state may bias how people interpret a dog’s emotions.

In the second experiment, the researchers deliberately mismatched the context and the dog’s behavior. For example, participants might see a dog reacting positively in a negative situation, or vice versa. Six combinations were tested, including matched and mismatched positive/negative stimuli and dog behaviors.

The results showed that when the dog’s reaction didn’t match the situation, people tended to rely more on the context than on the dog’s actual behavior. For instance, they rated the emotional state more positively if the surrounding situation was positive — even when the dog was reacting negatively. The presence of a leash or a treat led people to rate a dog’s emotional state as positive regardless of what the dog’s body and behavior showed. This was true even though most participants claimed to be basing their judgments on the dog’s behavior, not the background.

These results suggest that many people don’t base their perceptions of dog emotion solely on the dogs themselves. Instead, they draw heavily from context. Unfortunately, this can lead to misjudgments, especially when the true cause of a dog’s emotional response is hidden from view. For example, someone might fail to recognize that a dog is in pain or afraid if there’s no obvious trigger in their immediate environment. This could result in a missed opportunity to provide appropriate care or a supportive response to an animal.

The study’s findings support broader scientific theories of emotion — particularly the Constructed Theory of Emotion, which argues that emotional experiences arise from a combination of bodily cues, personal history, and environmental context. While the study didn’t attempt to determine what the dog was actually feeling, it shows that human interpretations of animal emotions — just like interpretations of human emotions — are strongly influenced by our own perceptions and biases.

Although this study doesn’t provide specific guidance for how to improve our ability to understand dogs’ emotions, it does offer a valuable starting point: awareness. People tend to rely on the surrounding situation when interpreting how a dog feels, even when those cues are misleading. Our own emotional state and assumptions about dogs can also shape what we think we see. These biases, left unchecked, may cause us to overlook an animal’s distress or misinterpret their attempts to communicate. By acknowledging that our perceptions are shaped by human-centered filters and situational cues, we can begin to move toward a more accurate and respectful understanding of companion animals’ emotional lives.