How Dogs Use Eye Contact During Uncertainty: A Look at 2025 Research

When did you last consider when and how long for your dog gazed at you. It turns out there are a lot of things to notice about it, as this 2025 study shows us. 

One of the most powerful and subtle ways dogs communicate is through their eyes. A single glance can mean a question, a request, a reassurance, or a signal that they are struggling. 

While guardians often sense these meanings intuitively, new research helps to explain exactly why dogs look at us in different ways and what those moments of eye contact reveal about their personality and emotional world.

A 2025 study from the Family Dog Project explored how dogs behave when something feels uncertain but not overpoweringly frightening. 

Researchers used a simple remote controlled toy car to create a moment of mild ambiguity. The dog, the guardian, and a friendly stranger were all in the room. 

The key focus was not the dog's reaction to the car, but how the dog used their eyes to navigate the situation. This tiny moment revealed a great deal about canine emotional safety, attachment, and communication.

The study found four distinct styles of gazing, each linked to different emotional tendencies. 

These weren't categories of good or bad, right or wrong, but rather windows into the diverse ways dogs make sense of moments when they're unsure.

Some dogs looked only two or three times at either person during the minute long event.

These low gazers were more likely to show higher scores for aggression, lower levels of emotional comfort provided to their guardians, and breed tendencies toward independence, such as German shepherds. 

This doesn't mean these dogs are aloof or unloving. Instead, they seem to rely less on humans for guidance in uncertain moments. 

They may be more environmentally focused, more vigilant, or simply less inclined toward social referencing. Their strategy for managing uncertainty is internal rather than relational.

Other dogs looked more often at the unfamiliar person than their guardian. These experimenter focused gazers looked around six or seven times and showed lower aggression scores. 

They appeared less lively but also less stressed. These may be the dogs who are confident with strangers, curious about novelty, or comfortable exploring social information beyond their immediate family. 

They haven't decided that uncertainty requires checking in with their person because they're open to gathering information from whoever is available.

Then there were the dogs who looked clearly and repeatedly to their guardian for reassurance. These owner focused gazers looked four to ten times at their person and very little at the stranger. They were rated as giving their guardian strong emotional comfort. 

This style is often seen in dogs who view their guardian as a secure base. When something feels strange, they glance at their person to check whether everything is alright. 

Their guardians tend to feel deeply connected to them because these dogs offer affection, closeness, and emotional support in everyday life. There's a mutual exchange happening in these moments of eye contact, a conversation that runs deeper than words.

Finally, a small group looked intensely and repeatedly at both people, often twenty or more glances in total. These frequent gazers had the highest aggression scores and looked at both humans in rapid succession. 

For these dogs, frequent gazing is less about sociability and more about anxiety. They may be scanning both humans for reassurance, looking for the person who feels safest, or struggling to manage the emotional load of the unfamiliar situation. 

Their eyes are moving because their nervous system is moving, searching for something to anchor to, something to tell them they're okay.

What this means broadly is that a dog's gaze during uncertainty is not about training or obedience. Age, sex, neuter status, training experience, and even whether the dog approached the toy did not predict their gazing style. 

Instead, gaze patterns were strongly connected to personality and emotional bonds. Your dog's eyes tell the story of how they cope with stress, how they see you, and how they regulate themselves in unfamiliar moments. 

This is information we can't command or shape through training alone. It emerges from who they are and what they've learned about safety in their life with us.

One of the most touching outcomes of this research is the connection between owner focused gazing and the guardian's experience of emotional comfort. 

Dogs who look more at their guardians didn't just seek comfort from their person; their guardians experienced these same dogs as deeply comforting companions. 

This suggests a mutual supportive bond where both human and dog soothe each other. 

The gaze goes both ways. When your dog looks to you for reassurance, and you offer it through your calm presence, something settles in both of you. Your nervous systems are in conversation, regulating together, creating safety for each other.

Dogs who looked very little at either person were generally perceived as offering less emotional comfort. Not because they are less affectionate, but because they communicate differently. They may deal with uncertainty through independence rather than connection. 

These dogs aren't distant; they're simply wired to manage their internal world through their own resources first. They're the ones who, when something goes wrong, take themselves to a quiet corner rather than seeking a lap. 

Both approaches are valid. Both are ways of coping. Neither needs to be trained out or corrected.

Frequent gazers, those scanning back and forth between people, may be the dogs who struggle most in ambiguous situations. Their eyes reflect anxiety and overstimulation rather than intentional communication. 

These dogs often need a slow pace, predictable routines, and space to decompress. When we see this pattern, we're witnessing a nervous system that's working overtime, trying to find safety in a moment that feels uncertain. 

These are the dogs who benefit most from reducing demands, increasing predictability, and giving them permission to opt out when the world feels like too much.

Experimenter focused gazers may be the calm explorers of the dog world. They're often open to new people and perhaps use a broader set of social cues to make sense of the moment. 

They haven't learned to view unfamiliar situations as inherently threatening, so they're comfortable gathering information from whoever seems interesting or helpful. There's a kind of social confidence in this approach, a willingness to engage with the world beyond the primary attachment figure.

Nothing in these findings suggests that one style is better than another. Instead, they reveal diverse emotional strategies. Just as humans differ in how we handle uncertainty, dogs differ in whether they look for support, take charge alone, or check in repeatedly. 

Some of us call a friend when we're stressed. Some of us go for a walk alone. Some of us need to talk it through with multiple people before we feel settled. Dogs are no different. They have preferences, patterns, ways of being in the world that are as individual as they are.

This study reinforces something kind, powerful, and simple: your dog's eyes are a window into their emotional experience, not a tool for obedience. 

Eye contact in dogs is often described in training contexts as a behaviour to demand, reward, or shape. But this research reminds us that gaze is, first and foremost, communication. It's not something to control but something to understand, to honour, to respond to with the care it deserves.

When your dog looks at you, they may be asking whether something is safe, checking whether you are calm, looking for emotional grounding, seeking comfort, watching for guidance, or trying to understand your reaction.

The look is a question, and your response is the answer their nervous system is waiting for.

If you're calm, they can borrow that calm. If you're steady, they can anchor to that steadiness. This is the gift of being someone's secure base.

When they don't look at you, they may be managing the situation independently, feeling too vigilant to break focus, unsure but not socially inclined, overwhelmed and avoiding visual contact, or simply exploring and taking in the world. 

The absence of eye contact is just a different way of coping, a different strategy for navigating the moment. Some dogs need connection when they're uncertain. Others need space. Both are valid. Both deserve respect.

When they gaze repeatedly at both you and a stranger, they may be struggling with worry, unsure who to rely on, hyperaware of social cues, or looking for someone to regulate with.

This rapid scanning tells us something important: the dog is working hard to feel safe and isn't quite finding it. In these moments, the kindest thing we can do is become more predictable, more grounded, more calm. We can't force them to settle, but we can be the kind of presence that makes settling possible.

For guardians, the most supportive thing we can do is remain steady. Slower movement, soft voice, predictable routines, gentle space, and an atmosphere of safety all help dogs regulate more easily. If your dog checks in with you, respond calmly. Let them know through your body, your breath, your energy that everything is okay. 

If they don't check in, give them room. Trust that they're managing in the way that works for them. If they stare anxiously, scanning between people or fixating on something in the environment, reduce demand and increase safety. Make the world smaller, quieter, more manageable for a nervous system that's already working overtime.

In the end, your dog's gaze is not a behaviour to train. It is a feeling to understand. And when we understand it, we deepen the bond that helps both species feel more secure, more connected, and more able to navigate the world together. 

Every time your dog looks at you and finds you calm, finds you present, finds you available, something strengthens between you. Every time you honour their need to look away, to manage independently, to take their time, trust deepens. This is how we build relationships that truly support emotional wellness, not through commands and compliance, but through understanding and presence.

The eyes, after all, are where we meet each other. Where we ask our questions and offer our answers. 

Where we say without words, "Are you there? Am I safe? Can I trust you?" 

And in those moments, when we respond with the steadiness our dogs need, we're not just teaching them something about the world. 

We're showing them that they are safe and loved!