Why Dogs Look To Us: What Gazing Says About Personality, Comfort, and Breed*

In a new peer-reviewed study of 171 family dogs, researchers grouped dogs by how often they looked at their person or a friendly stranger during a mildly uncertain situation (a remote-controlled toy car). Those gaze patterns tied to personality (liveliness, aggressiveness), the emotional comfort dogs provide their people, and some breed differences.

What the researchers did

Dogs met a small moving toy car in a controlled room. For one minute, observers counted how often each dog looked at:

• their owner

• an unfamiliar experimenter

Owners also completed validated questionnaires on their dog’s personality and how much emotional comfort the dog provides.

Four “gazing styles”

1. Low gazers (about one-third): looked only a few times at either person

2. Experimenter-focused gazers (about one-third): looked more at the friendly stranger

3. Owner-focused gazers (about one-quarter): looked more at their person

4. Frequent gazers (about 9%): looked a lot at both people

Key findings

• Owner-focused gazers = more emotional comfort. Dogs who looked more at their person were reported to make their humans feel loved and supported more than low gazers.

• Liveliness & aggressiveness differ by group. Experimenter-focused gazers were less lively than frequent gazers and less aggressive than both low and frequent gazers.

• Breed signal (cautious takeaway). Over half of German Shepherd Dogs fell into the low-gazer group, while only ~5% of Golden Retrievers did. (This reflects this sample only; individuals vary.)

• What didn’t matter: age, sex, neuter status, training history (as broadly defined here), or whether the dog approached the toy car.

What the study actually found

• Researchers compared five breed groups with ≥15 dogs: mixed-breed (n=43), Border Collie (31), German Shepherd Dog (23), Golden Retriever (19), Labrador Retriever (15).

• A statistically significant difference emerged in how these groups were distributed across the four gazing styles (χ² = 21.06, df = 12, p = 0.049).

• The standout contrast: 56.5% of German Shepherd Dogs were “low gazers,” while only ~5.3% of Golden Retrievers were low gazers in this sample.

• Border Collies and Labradors were included as “cooperative” working breeds too, but the paper highlights the clearest divergence between GSDs vs. Goldens.

• Importantly, age, sex, neuter status, training history (broadly defined), and approach to the toy did not explain gazing style differences.

How to interpret that (without stereotyping)

• These are group-level tendencies within this sample, not destiny for any individual dog. A Golden can be a low gazer; a GSD can be an owner-focused or frequent gazer.

• All four purebred groups here (BC, GSD, Golden, Lab) are generally selected for human cooperation, yet they still differed—reminding us that breed lines and historic selection pressures may nudge social-attention strategies in nuanced ways.

• Mixed-breed dogs formed the fifth group; because mixes are incredibly diverse, treating “mixed-breed” as a single category is helpful for stats but not a tidy behavioral label.

Practical takeaways for guardians & trainers

• GSD guardians: If your dog tends to “low gaze” in uncertain contexts, that’s not a flaw. Support check-ins by reinforcing quiet glances (“look at me” → mark → treat), keep arousal low, and let your dog process visually/olfactorily before asking for eye contact.

• Golden guardians: Many Goldens may naturally “check in” more—use that to shape calm, confident approaches to novel stimuli. Still reinforce calm check-ins so it doesn’t tip into frantic looking.

• Border Collies & Labs: Expect strong human orientation overall, but watch for individual differences—some dogs will prefer working the environment (sniff, scan) over frequent eye contact in ambiguous moments.

• Mixed-breed guardians: Focus on the individual dog in front of you. Build a check-in habit the same way: pair your soft voice and relaxed body with a tiny reinforcer right after a spontaneous glance.

Why this matters for training plans

• Gazing is a trainable communication channel. If your dog is a lower gazer under stress, try: greater distance from the trigger, slower exposures, and reinforcing micro-glances.

• For frequent gazers (especially if paired with higher aggressiveness scores in this study), frequent looking might reflect anxiety rather than “focus.” Teach a predictable routine: look → treat on the ground → sniff break → short disengage.

Caveats (keep us honest)

• The breed comparison covers five groups only, with modest per-breed sample sizes (e.g., 19 Goldens, 23 GSDs).

• “Training” was broad; more fine-grained categories (e.g., field vs. pet vs. sport lines) might reveal different patterns.

• The task was brief and specific (a toy car in a lab), so real-world generalization should be cautious.

Bottom line: breed can tilt the playing field a bit, but relationship quality, practice, and context are the big levers. Use gentle, well-timed reinforcement to make “checking in” a safe, useful skill for any dog.What this means for guardians

• Gazing is communication, not a trick. Many dogs “check in” with us in uncertain moments—seeking information or reassurance.

• If your dog looks to you, use it. Soft voice, relaxed body, and positive cues can help your dog re-appraise something weird or new.

• Low gazing isn’t “bad.” Some dogs gather info in other ways (sniffing, scanning, creating distance). Focus on calm support, not forcing eye contact.

• Personality matters. Higher aggressiveness scores linked to either very low or very frequent gazing in this context—reminding us to look at the whole dog (stress, arousal, coping style) rather than one behavior in isolation.

• Breed is a nudge, not a destiny. Tendencies can differ by breed, but social learning, practice, and relationship quality are huge.

Try this at home (gentle exercise)

When your dog notices something novel (e.g., a loud shop display), pause at a comfortable distance. If your dog glances at you, quietly praise and feed a treat after they check in. If they don’t glance, that’s fine—mark calm behavior and add distance. Keep sessions short, and end on success.

*

Citation: Kubinyi, E., Sommese, A., Gácsi, M., & Miklósi, Á. (2025). Dogs’ Gazing Behavior to Humans Is Related to Their Liveliness, Aggressiveness, and the Emotional Comfort They Provide. Animals, 15(483). https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15040483

FAQs

Q1: Why does my dog look at me during uncertain situations? Dogs often look to trusted humans for information, reassurance, or emotional support—a behavior known as social referencing.

Q2: Do certain breeds look at their owners more? In this study, German Shepherds looked less often, while Golden Retrievers looked more. Still, individuals vary widely.

Q3: Can training increase my dog's check-ins? Yes — gentle reinforcement of spontaneous glances can help build owner-focused gazing.

Q4: Does frequent gazing mean anxiety? Sometimes. Some high-frequency gazers also had elevated aggressiveness scores, which may reflect stress.