Every dog own­er is fa­mil­iar with a sense of be­ing watched. Dogs spend a lot of time star­ing at their own­ers, even if the own­ers can some­times find the con­stant at­ten­tion a bit dis­con­cert­ing.

Dogs stare at you for var­i­ous rea­sons, in­clud­ing ex­press­ing af­fec­tion, seek­ing at­ten­tion, or com­mu­ni­cat­ing a need for food or to go out­side. Star­ing can al­so be a sign of cu­rios­i­ty, dis­com­fort, ag­gres­sion, or a med­ical is­sue. As dogs can­not com­mu­ni­cate us­ing words, they com­mu­ni­cate non-ver­bal­ly us­ing their eyes, ear po­si­tion, tails, and oth­er parts of their bod­ies. Vo­cal­i­sa­tion such as bark­ing, growl­ing, whin­ing, etc are al­so an im­por­tant form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Ob­serv­ing their oth­er body lan­guage as well as any vo­cal­i­sa­tion can help you in­ter­pret the in­ten­tion of the dog’s stare.

Com­mon rea­sons for star­ing in­clude:

• Af­fec­tion

A lov­ing, soft stare with a re­laxed body can strength­en the bond be­tween you and your dog, as it re­leas­es oxy­tocin, the “love hor­mone,” in both of you. This chem­i­cal plays an im­por­tant role in bond­ing and boosts feel­ings of love and trust.

• To com­mu­ni­cate a need

Your dog may be try­ing to tell you some­thing, such as it’s time for a pot­ty break, a meal, or a walk. At cer­tain times of the day or in cer­tain cir­cum­stances, they use their stare to con­vey cer­tain in­for­ma­tion. For ex­am­ple, around din­ner time, many dogs may try to catch your eye to re­mind you to feed them. Dogs may al­so stare and paw at you to re­mind you to take them out.

• To get at­ten­tion

Dogs have learned that mak­ing eye con­tact will get their own­er’s at­ten­tion. Star­ing can be a way for them to ask for play­time, a toy, or sim­ply to be no­ticed. Some­times this kind of star­ing is com­bined with play­ful bow­ing.

• To show cu­rios­i­ty

Dogs watch you to un­der­stand what you’re do­ing. Dogs and hu­mans have a spe­cial re­la­tion­ship. Dogs are nat­u­ral­ly in­clined to be­come at­tached to their own­ers, and they take an in­ter­est in what their hu­mans do. Watch­ing peo­ple is how they gath­er in­for­ma­tion about their ac­tions. If you’ve trained your dog to re­spond to hand or voice sig­nals, they might be wait­ing for a sig­nal to tell them what to do next. Oth­er times, they’re just ob­serv­ing you so that they can know more about you.

• To beg for food

A di­rect stare while you are eat­ing is of­ten a re­quest for you to share your food. This stare is usu­al­ly ac­com­pa­nied by drool­ing.

• To seek pro­tec­tion

When vul­ner­a­ble, like when they are toi­let­ing, dogs may stare at you to en­sure they are safe. Some dogs with sep­a­ra­tion anx­i­ety will con­stant­ly stare at their own­er be­cause they’re wor­ried the own­er will sneak out and leave them home alone.

• Ag­gres­sion

In their wolf an­ces­tors, star­ing is con­sid­ered threat­en­ing and rude. That’s why you should nev­er stare down strange dogs or hold dogs still to stare in­to their eyes. If a dog gives you a hard stare, with un­blink­ing eyes and a stiff pos­ture, this is usu­al­ly an in­di­ca­tion that the dog is un­com­fort­able and wants you to move away or stop do­ing what­ev­er you’re do­ing at that mo­ment. Back away and don’t make eye con­tact. You might see this in your own dog when there is a val­ued treat or toy at stake. Re­source guard­ing is of­ten ac­com­pa­nied by a hard stare and oth­er ag­gres­sive body lan­guage.

• Dis­com­fort or pain

Star­ing can be a sign of pain or dis­com­fort. If you sus­pect this, check for oth­er signs and con­sult a vet.

• Cog­ni­tive de­cline

If an old­er dog is star­ing blankly or show­ing signs of con­fu­sion and dis­ori­en­ta­tion, it could be a symp­tom of ca­nine cog­ni­tive dys­func­tion. If you have con­cerns, it is best to con­sult a vet­eri­nar­i­an.

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