How Your Mood Affects Your Dog’s Training

Does it feel like no matter how much training you do, your dog just isn’t getting it?

Because when training stops working, it’s almost never about the cues or the treats. There is usually an energetic disconnect between you and your dog.

I know how discouraging it feels, when you’re doing everything right (positive reinforcement, consistency, treats, reading books, learning all the things) and you’re still not seeing the progress you expected.

Its so easy to start wondering, ‘Why isn’t my dog catching on? What am I missing? Is this just how life is going to be with them?’

The turning point usually comes from the same place: reconnecting the emotional, energetic bond so training can actually land.

Here is the simple energetic reset you and your dog need, the one that melts the frustration, rebuilds your connection, and makes training finally start working again.

Training your dog while you were stressed, frustrated, tired, or overwhelmed usually isn't a pleasant experience for you or your dog. This is because dogs absorb our emotional states and then respond to them.

Dogs don’t just listen to your commands. They listen to your state.

Every time you interact with your dog, they’re reading:

• your body tension

• your breathing

• your tone

• your micro-expressions

• your energy level

This is called emotional mirroring, and it’s one of the main reasons your dog behaves differently depending on how you feel.

Emotional contagion is the process where one individual’s emotions trigger similar emotions in another. Emotional contagion, first characterized by Elaine Hatfield, describes how people who observe the emotions and behaviors of another tend to copy those emotions and behaviors. For example, when someone smiles happily around others, those around them are more likely to smile and feel happy. Emotional contagion can spread through facial expressions, vocal tone, and posture. Emotional contagion can arise from interactions between people and between people and non-humans. So yes, it happens between species. That means emotional contagion occurs between us and our dogs.

Research highlights you can mention

• Dogs synchronize their heart rate with their humans.

• Dogs read cortisol levels (stress hormone) through scent.

• Dogs track human facial expressions and match them.

• Dogs mirror nervous system states through co-regulation.

  
  

This means your emotional state becomes a training cue whether you realize it or not.

Positive reinforcement works, but not when the human is dysregulated. If your dog doesn’t feel safe, connected, or understood, the treats won’t land the same way. You can have the perfect timing, the perfect protocol…but if the emotional foundation is off, the results stall.

This is why dogs:

• lose focus

• shut down

• get reactive

• get overly excited

• ignore cues

• seem ‘stubborn’ (they’re not)

Most ‘training issues’ are actually connection issues.

Your dog is responding to the version of you that’s showing up in that moment.

This is something I teach inside Synergy, but I want to share a simple version with you today.

When I say ‘energy,’ here’s what I mean:

Energy = your nervous system + your emotions + your presence.

Your dog responds to that more than the words you speak.

Your dog is asking:

• Are you with me right now?

• Do you feel safe?

• Are you calm enough to guide me?

When the answer is yes, training becomes flow. When the answer is no, training feels like friction.

If you’re ready to take this work further, to truly understand your dog’s emotions, energy, and communication on a whole new level, I would love to support you inside Synergy.

I teach you how to rebuild trust, confidence, energetic alignment, and deep communication with your dog, so training finally feels easy, connected, and mutual.

Download my free PDF: ‘Manifesting With Your Pet.’

It walks you through how your energy affects your animal, in a grounded, practical way.

Take the quiz to find out your emotional communication style with your dog.

And if you want to go deeper — really understand the emotional side of training, connection, and behavior. Enroll in Synergy.

Watch this video for more details on how your mood affects our dog's training.