How Does Your Dog Feel When You’re Looking at Your Phone?

In this article:

• How much time do Americans spend looking at their phones?
• Are dogs good at reading humans’ cues?
• Is there anything especially distracting about your smartphone?
• Is it okay to use your phone while walking your dog?
• Does paying attention to dogs benefit people?

In his 2018 special Dirty Clean, comedian Pete Holmes joked about the challenge of figuring out what his dog wanted from him. He said his best guess was “never-ending eye contact.” In Holmes’ telling, while he was trying to watch The Great British Bake Off, his dog would angle his face toward his favorite human, trying to initiate a loving stare-down.

Many dog people can relate to Holmes’ experience—a version of it is unfolding for this reporter as he sits at his laptop writing this very story—and science backs it up. Dogs have evolved to excel at reading humans, including our facial expressions. They’re happiest when they get quality time to bond with their people. And, sadly, smartphones—which we can carry around all the time, and which incessantly buzz with alerts demanding that we look at them—can get in the way of that.

Here’s what we know about the impact of our smartphone use and other screen time on dogs, and what you can do to stay connected to your best friend.

Americans get loads of screen time

A survey by data-management firm Harmony Healthcare IT found that, in 2024, Americans spent an average of 5 hours and 16 minutes on their phones each day.

Regardless of whether this number is definitive, we can be sure that many of us are spending a lot of time looking at our phones when we could be looking at other, more important things—like our dogs. So what’s lost when we make that trade?

Dogs thrive on human connection

Scientists have long known that dogs are good at following humans’ cues to get what they want. 

Way back in the 1990s, researchers including Dr. Brian Hare noted dogs’ skill at locating hidden food by following humans’ pointing and gaze. Compared to wolf puppies, dog puppies are more likely to look to humans for help. This is one reason the “impossible task” game, in which dogs are confronted with a situation where the only way to get a treat out of a closed container is by soliciting human assistance, is such an effective way to get closer to your dog. As Vanessa Woods of Duke University’s Puppy Kindergarten told us when we reported on the program she runs with Dr. Hare—where said task is part of the curriculum—“eye contact is really important for bonding and the relationship between dogs and their owners.”

“Dogs are incredibly attuned to human gaze, probably through selective breeding,” said Maddie Messina, Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist and founder of Paws for Thought Dog Training in New York City, “and lack of it, i.e. when someone’s on their phone all the time, is probably very disruptive for human/dog communication.”

Research by Dr. Juliane Kaminski and her colleagues recently found that Labrador retriever puppies engaged more with humans whose faces were visible than those whose faces were hidden. “Even these young puppies,” Dr. Kaminski told us, “are sensitive to the humans’ attention shifting away from them. So if we stare at our phone while being around our dogs, they sense that we are not attentive.”

Whenever you can, dial in to your dog

You don’t need to get hung up on the phone as the villain here—its impact is less about the object itself and more that modern humans tend to spend so much time using it.

“I think dogs know when we’re not paying attention to them and when we are paying attention to them,” said Dr. Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, “and they can surely read our faces, but I don’t see anything special about being on the phone.”

Dr. Kaminski agreed. “Smartphones are incredibly addictive and distracting,” she said. “That’s probably all that makes them in any way ‘special’ in this context.”

Pick your spots

The year is 2025, and most of us don’t have the choice or willingness to abstain from smartphone use. The good news is: You don’t have to cancel your wireless plan to give your dog the love and attention they need, as long as you’re intentional about when you are and aren’t using your phone.

“To invest in the relationship and the bond with our dogs, we have to ensure that there is sufficient engagement and ‘together’ time,” Dr. Kaminski said. “I often see owners walking their dogs while staring at their phones. That would not count as an experience that both enjoy together,” she explained, because “the dog would know that the owner is not attentive and engaged at all.”

When you’re walking your dog, put the phone away. It’s not the time to check your fantasy lineup or swipe through “the apps.” Give your dog quality time when you’re engaged with them. Train them to do new tricks. Let them exercise their senses and make choices.

And, if you need to spend time on the internet and your dog wants amusement, make wherever they’re hanging out pleasant—give them a comfortable bed and toys they like. Consider food puzzles and other forms of enrichment that can keep them busy and content for a bit. Messina recommends a “long-duration activity” involving chewing or licking “that will help prepare your dog for a nap.”

These diversions can be like giving your dog a phone of their own, but better. For a dog, rummaging for treats in a snuffle mat can be a fun way of seeking positive reinforcement—and is less fraught than the hours a person spends angling for Instagram likes.

Paying attention to your dog is good for you, too

Canadian scientists recently found that, basically, humans who paid more attention to their dogs felt better. When study participants were in a “mindfulness condition,” in which they “were invited to fully focus on their dog” through observation, interaction, smell, and touch, they reported more positive emotions.

“The mindfulness condition was found to have a positive impact on dog owners’ well-being,” the authors wrote.

No matter what tech you have around you, try to be in the moment with your dog whenever you can. Pay attention to their wants and needs, and provide them with an appropriate amount of physical and mental exercise. If you do that, chances are they—and you—will be happier. Even if you do have to break eye contact from time to time.