There was a quite curious phenomenon I noticed with our dog, Rocket, that took place while I was in the last days of my previous job. I could see at that point that things weren’t going to work out for me but I still continued to forge ahead and do my best. This put me under unbelievable stress, the likes I’d never felt before. The day before I lost my job I was such a nervous wreck that I could barely speak.

At this very same time, Rocket began to repeatedly smack his lips. Not just once, though, he did it all day long, something he’s never done before. I joked at the time that he must have gotten into some peanut butter or something, but in looking back I had an interesting thought.

Rocket smacks his lips when he’s feeling stressed. At the time I was feeling more stress than I ever had before. Was our dog simply reacting to the stress I was feeling? I never found any evidence he had eaten something he shouldn’t have, nor did I treat our dog any differently than usual. I can’t help but wonder if there might be something to the theory that dogs are innately attuned to moods of their masters.