Rollo Comforted Me

Something amazing happened this evening. I was watching a movie, Lion, about an Indian boy, Saroo who gets lost far away from home. He and his brother were riding trains, and they got separated. He is unable to get back home and ends up in an orphanage and is eventually adopted by a loving Australian family. However, once he becomes a successful adult in Australia, he sets out to find his biological family in India, a sort of mission impossible. I know it is not something parents of adopted children are thrilled about, but he has their blessing to go and try to find them anyway. It is a beautiful movie based on a true story and it is one of the most emotive and touching movies I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen the movie before, but it is difficult, even for me, not to get a bit emotional towards the end of the movie. I highly recommend the movie if you have not seen it. But you may need a tissue box.

I am sitting in the sofa, being a bit emotional, but I don’t think I was very emotional. I don’t think it was obvious. Rollo, our mini-Australian Shepherd is sitting in the same sofa, a few feet away. I look over at him and I see his big round sad eyes staring at me as he is tilting his head. I can see the love and concern in his eyes. He slowly comes over to me, lays his paw on my leg for a bit while looking into my eyes. Then he lays down next to me and pushes his body towards my leg as if to comfort me. It just felt exactly as if that was what he was doing. He was trying to comfort me. I wasn’t really sad, but the movie was touching my heart. So, I guess my feeling was pretty close to sadness.

Rollo our dark brown and white mini-Australian Shepherd is standing in the kitchen looking sad
This is Rollo. I don’t have a photo of him from today’s experience. This photo is from a different occasion when Rollo did not look happy because we told him we are leaving.

Can dogs sense when we are sad?

It is not just Rollo. Our Leonberger Bronco, our pug Daisy and our other dogs showed on several occasions that they could sense our feelings. When one of us was sad they tried to comfort. Especially Bronco was very sensitive to people’s feelings, and he tried to comfort. When our Japanese Chin Ryu died, we were sad, and Bronco and Daisy were sad, and I believe they could sense our sadness. The whole house was in mourning, including the dogs.

I can add that Leonbergers are known to be loving dogs and are especially in tune with people’s feelings. That is why they are very often used as therapy dogs. Dogs can even use their amazing sense of smell to detect emotions in people. “Can Dogs Sense Human Emotions?” is is an excellent article from “the Vets” on the topic. Check out the section under “Can dogs sense when we are sad? ”. I think you can recognize what just happened with Rollo. This is another interesting article from VCA Animal Hospitals. This post features a video about a therapy Leonberger called Scout.

Our Leonberger is standing on the large red leather sofa giving me a kiss.
Me and our Leonberger Bronco when he was young. He is giving me a hug.

Dogs can sense and detect a lot of things, our emotions, mood, fear, whether you are pregnant or not, illness, cancer, diabetes, whether you are a negative person, whether you are about to have a seizure, the weather, and they have an amazing sense of smell. You can read more about that here.

Recently Rollo impressed me with his amazing sense of smell. You can read about that here. Guess who had a truly amazing sense of smell? That was Bronco our Leonberger. You can read about that in the same post.

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

57 thoughts on “Rollo Comforted Me”

  2. I’m also convinced that dogs can sense our sadness as well as other emotions. They pick up on a lot of verbal and noverbal cues.

    I’ve noticed a couple of curious things about when our dog barks. When my wife and I are laughing about something, Lulu will often start barking as if she wants to be in on the joke. When we ask her questions (I imagine she picks up on the tone of our voices), she often barks in response. “Are you hungry?” produces a bark every time.

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    1. Yes I definitely think so. I think it is funny that Lulu is barking with you when you laugh. She wants her voice heard. She definitely understands words. I think for most dogs, hungry, eat, food, dinner, are on top of the list.

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  5. It’s truly amazing how dogs can sense our state and condition. Sometimes far beyond what we can perceive. And it’s adorable how they come to comfort us. Thank you, Thomas, for sharing this beautiful experience. truly touching! Light and blessings to you and yours (fur friends included!) 🙏✨🐕

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  7. A lovely post, Thomas. I believe dogs can sense discord and want to help get things back to normal. When their humans are sad I believe they feel that emotion and want to do all they can to assure their human that they are there for support. Good on Rollo.

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  14. Lovely post Thomas. Rollo is such a sweetheart. Our pets pick up on our moods, and seem to know when to be close, or when to back up. Maggie was brilliant for me after a stressful day. She would sit half on the arm of the chair, half on my lap and I’d stroke her. The tension faded away and once she felt I was relaxed, she went and lay down at my feet. Maya is equally tuned in to us and so good with Hubby.

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  15. This is such a touching story, Thomas, and I have no doubt that dogs can sense how we’re feeling. Copper did the same thing in different ways. They know their humans. The photo of Rollo is also adorable. I loved your book about Bronco and am working on my review for sharing sometime this month. Slowly, but surely.

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    1. Thank you so much Lauren for your very kind words. I just read your book King Copper this evening and you wrote in there that “He knows when we’re sad”, so I know that you know. The poetry in your book is beautiful and filled with love. It was a very touching read, a great story and I loved the photos of Copper. March to March is such a beautiful poem. It was great that you picked him up from a shelter.

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  16. Java Bean: “Ayyy, that is what we dogs are here for, to support our humans when they need it!”
    Charlee: “And that is what we cats are here for, too, to get supported by our humans when we need it!”
    Lulu: “… that is like the exact opposite of what Bean said.”
    Charlee: “Is it? Sounds the same to me.”

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  17. Anyone who has lived with dogs for a while and is paying attention knows that dogs are very sensitive to our feelings and vibes. I have a feeling that we are only glimpsing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what dogs sense and know.

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  22. Ah Thomas, this was a lovely post. I also remember getting wet around the eyes when I saw ‘Lion’ for the first time. It is a beautiful, touching, heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful film about identity, and I’m not surprised it affected you like that. Rollo’s reaction shows what fabulous companions dogs can be, and indeed I recall several such examples from Inde and Solo over the years.

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