Do dogs yawn when stressed?

While your dog may not be able to tell you what they need in actual words, they use plenty of cues to communicate, including barking, pawing, and even yawning. 

While most people associate yawning with exhaustion or boredom, dogs yawn for many reasons. In fact, yawning is an important signal you can use to gauge how your dog is feeling. Here’s the non-yawn-inducing breakdown of why dogs yawn.

Why do dogs yawn?

As with people, there are a multitude of circumstances in which dogs yawn, and scientists and behaviorists have floated numerous theories, several of which are backed by extensive research.

Yawning due to fatigue

Of course, dogs yawn because they’re tired—just like us. While researchers aren’t sure why the body’s response to being tired is to yawn, one theory posits that yawning is a way to regulate body temperature and even temporarily raise one’s heart rate, both factors which can help abate sleepiness.

Not sure if your dog is yawning because they’re sleepy? Look for context clues: is their yawn accompanied by stretching and other signs of fatigue—such as drooping eyelids or even nodding off? Odds are that you just have a sleepy friend.

But yawning doesn’t always mean fatigue.

Yawning as a sign of stress and anxiety

Another common reason dogs yawn is as a stress response. Whether experiencing fear, separation anxiety, or another uncomfortable situation (such as being hugged or touched when uninvited, or confronting strange dogs or people), dogs will often yawn in response to mental or emotional discomfort.

One way to determine whether your dog’s yawning is a stress response is to look at frequency. 

Excessive yawning is linked to higher cortisol levels, a hormone the body releases when stressed, in humans, and a similar link has been found in dogs. Frequent yawning is a common sign of stress, especially if the yawns are prolonged. (While the average length of a yawn depends on your dog’s size, when your dog holds their yawn longer than usual, that’s generally a sign of stress.) 

Recognizing yawning as a stress signal can help you remove your canine companion from stressful situations, an essential component of dog care. As with humans, stress can cause serious health issues in dogs, including high blood pressure, appetite loss, and even a weakened immune system.

Could be tuckered out, or stressed out.

Yawning as an appeasement signal

Another common reason dogs yawn is to avoid a conflict with a potential aggressor. It’s what experts call a calming signal. A yawn in this situation is a nonverbal means of saying, “I’m not a threat” or “I don’t want a problem.” Yawning, along with blinking, and licking their nose, is one of the first steps on what’s known as the ladder of aggression. If the signals at this stage are unheeded, or if the situation escalates, they can move up the ladder to turning their head, moving away, or growling. 

Once again, to determine the cause of the yawn, look at the context in which your dog is yawning. Is another animal in their space and/or displaying aggressive behavior? Some examples of aggressive behavior include hard stares, growling, snapping, and even going rigid.

If your dog is yawning to calm another dog or a person, remove them from the situation.

Ready for a nap, or annoyed by this photo session

Can dogs catch yawns the way humans do?

One common yawning phenomenon among humans is catching yawns, or, yawning when someone else does. This is also known as contagious yawning, something that humans and their primate cousins are known to do.

And it seems like our canine companions also catch yawns. While one study showed that dogs don’t yawn when they see video of people or dogs yawning, several other studies have found that dogs participate in contagious yawning. One study, from the University of Tokyo, found that over half of the dogs they looked at yawned after watching their owner yawn. Humans similarly tend to yawn more when they watch someone they’re familiar with yawn than when they watch a stranger.

Research shows that contagious yawning is associated with better social skills and empathy in humans, and the University of Tokyo research found the same link between contagious yawning and empathy in dogs—surprising no one who has ever met a dog.

Chris Amaral/Digital Vision/Getty Images

When you find yourself yawning in the middle of the day, it's often a clue that you spent a little too much time caught up in a riveting suspense novel the night before. Your dog's yawn, however, frequently indicates something totally different than too little sleep: think stress. Stress isn't the only cause of canine yawning, however.

When dogs yawn, it often denotes that they're feeling anxious about something -- perhaps a trip to the groomer or the sight of the next-door neighbor's cat. By yawning, they're trying to comfort themselves. If your yawning dog is stressed out about something, you might notice other cues that indicate his emotional state: Stressed out dogs often avoid eye contact with others, lick their lips and cower. All of these things denote a pooch who isn't feeling too serene about his situation. Yawning in dogs sometimes is a sign of a combination of stress and jittery anticipation, too. If a dog simply is thrilled about something, he might yawn to energize himself.

Yawning can signify that a dog is feeling uneasy about what's going on at the moment -- to the point that he's considering defending himself by biting. If you sense that a dog is in defense mode, avoid going close to him. Other common indications of defensiveness in dogs include tight postures, fixed gazes and rigid tails. Always keep children far away from dogs showing such behavior.

Some dogs yawn as a way of soothing other canines. If a pooch is intimidated by a larger dog, he might yawn as a means of conveying that he has no desire to fight, according to Stanley Coren, author of "How to Speak Dog." Some dogs with high social status yawn to reassure canines that are lower on the totem pole, too. If a meek dog is afraid that an alpha dog is going to steal his coveted sleeping spot, a yawn from the tougher specimen might be all it takes to eliminate his nerves.

While yawning in dogs frequently points to stress and other emotions, it sometimes can mean simple sleepiness, too. Some dogs yawn because they want to go to sleep or because they need a rest period from exercise or play. Single yawns can signify a tired dog, says dog trainer and writer Liz Palika. Multiple yawns, however, often express something else entirely. If a dog yawns repeatedly, it usually means he's feeling unsettled about something, whether nervousness or defensiveness. Note that your dog might also yawn just because he saw you doing so. Canines are big on replicating humans' expressions, according to Steven Kotler, author of "A Small Furry Prayer."