On the first day that I brought Caper home, he couldn't settle down to sleep and finally laid down and closed his eyes, breathing in a way that sounded exactly like a human being sobbing!! It was so pathetic to see! It looked & sounded exactly like what the dog in this video is doing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPPFZcMbKWs

I've never seen any other dogs do this. Is it really sadness like it is for humans? I'm wondering if anyone else's dogs do this. Poor guy! He stopped doing it after the 3rd day or so, but once in a while, if he gets really frustrated he'll just lie down and start sobbing. Aw!!

O wow, no I have never see this. I have seen them get depressed and acting out when they have lost a loved one but this ... never....

I'm surprised that no one I've spoken to has seen this. I've seen depressed animals before, ones who won't eat or play and just sleep all day or stare into space. But this seems so shockingly human-like, like the time I held a calf who was crying because she lost her mother! Who knew cattle cried tears!

I think it's probably "reverse sneezing."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdnGNClqdX0
Search for the topic on the forum, it's been discussed a few times I think.

My dog at home does it seasonally and sometimes if she gets really excited or anxious.

When we first rescued Storm, she was in horrible, terrible condition. Practically starved, abused, neglected. It was heartbreaking. I showed her more kindness than she had probably ever been shown in her short life, and she became attached to me very quickly. She experienced separation anxiety just with me specifically. When I would leave for work, my husband told me that she would lay in her crate and cry like a baby. He said it sounded exactly like an infant's crying. She would do this for at least an hour after I left and nothing he could do would settle her down. I thought he was exaggerating until the first time she was well enough to go in the outside kennel. I took her out and let her in it so she could get some air and I went back in the house to get something and she started crying after me. It was a pitiful, heartbreaking sound. She's been with us 9 months now and she knows that we aren't going to abandon her and she doesn't do this anymore, but she definitely kept it up for the first 3 or 4 months she was with us. I don't know if I would call it sobbing, but it was definitely crying and it was definitely a sign of her anxiety/fear.

April, that's such a beautiful thing you did for Storm! :,) I'm glad she has a new outlook on life now. Caper definitely doesn't wail or make any vocal sounds when he's "sobbing", though he seems to have those episodes in conjunction with something negative happening. The last time he did it was about a week ago, when I tossed him in the car to go to the vet when he really resisted it. He just laid in the back seat, eyes closed, making those breathing sounds.

After youtubing "reverse sneeze", I think that that's what he's been doing [insert sheepish smile]. All guilty of anthropomorphizing: "I". I'm just glad that whatever was irritating his nasal passages seems to have gone away. Thanks for clearing that up Katie!

That video : super sad :c
Mishka does one long of those like a sight when he gets ready to close his eyes and sleep. Like a deep relief sound and off he goes.