Is My Dog Somehow Healing Me?
Lately, I’ve been dealing with a lot of body aches because I suddenly became more active. I’ve been doing around 15k steps on the treadmill plus Zumba, so my muscles have been sore almost constantly.
What’s weird is that my dog always seems to know exactly where I’m hurting.
He’s a very affectionate dog and LOVES licking people close to him. I usually stop him because I don’t like his saliva on my skin 😅 but he’s incredibly persistent and seems a behavior I cannot control. Recently, I noticed something strange: whenever he licks the exact spot where my body aches, the pain seems to disappear almost instantly after a few seconds.
At first, I thought it was just coincidence.
But then I started paying attention, and it kept happening over and over again. It’s always the specific area that hurts. After he licks it for a bit, the ache noticeably eases.
This also reminded me of something that happened about a year ago. I had a really bad anxiety attack, and somehow my dog noticed it. He came up to me and kept licking my leg until I slowly calmed down. Back then, I just thought he was trying to comfort me, but now I’m wondering if dogs can actually sense when we’re physically or emotionally unwell.
I truly love this dog so much. I honestly see and treat him like my own child, so maybe that strong bond is why he’s so emotionally attached and sensitive to what I’m feeling.
Per ChatGPT, my dog is probably not ‘healing’ the pain in a supernatural or medical sense, but what I'm experiencing is still very real.
It explained that dogs can calm our nervous system, reduce stress, distract our brain from pain, and emotionally comfort us — especially when they’re very bonded to their owner.
So maybe my dog isn’t magically healing me… but honestly, the comfort feels real enough 🐶