As often happens, a study on human behavior got me wondering about how it might relate to our relationship with our dogs. The study in question asked if emotions could be conveyed through body odor. The researchers asked 12 men with pads in their arm pits to watch videos that designed to elicit fear, happiness or a neutral reaction. After confirming that the videos did indeed influence the men’s emotional states (the fearful videos induced “negative emotions” and happy ones elicited “positive emotions”), the pads taken from their arm pits were then presented to women. (Insert bad joke here about what emotion the smell of a man’s arm pits would elicit automatically.)
An analysis of the women’s facial expressions found that the “happy sweat” induced more activity in facial muscles related to happiness (the Duchenne smile). On the other hand, their medial frontalis muscles, associated with a fearful expression, were more active after “fearful sweat.” That’s an impressive finding that suggests a kind of “emotional contagion” based on the sense of smell alone. However, the women did not score as expected on a task that objectively measures internal emotions (rating Chinese symbols as happy or sad), which does not support the “emotional contagion” hypothesis. The authors speculate that there might be different responses based on whether language is involved or not (not for the facial expressions, yes for the symbol analysis).
Either way, we know that people are far better at responding to scents than we imagine. In the chapter “Planet Smell” in The Other End of the Leash I explain that women can tell whether clothing had been worn by a man or a woman, identify the smell of their own infants, and discern whether something had been worn by a child, an adolescent or an adult. Impressive.
If we can do that, it seems reasonable that dogs could be able to detect changes in our emotional states relatively easily. You’d think we’d have at least some research that attempts to answer this question, but if it’s out there, neither I nor my colleagues can 
find it. (If you know of any, please fill us in.) There are many people in the world who work scent detection dogs who know far, far more about this topic than I, so I turned to expert colleagues who work with scent detection dogs. Susannah Charleson (Scent of the Missing) and Cat Warren (What the Dog Knows) have a vast range of experience with working scent detection dogs, so I asked them what they thought.
Susannah answered that her Search and Rescue dog Puzzle behaves differently when approaching a person she has been searching, depending on the victim’s state at the time. Long before she makes visual contact, Puzzle approaches people who are in pain, fearful or despondent quietly, even “puppy belly-crawling” toward them. On the other hand, if she has found training volunteers who are calm or excited, Puzzle is all perky and prancy as she approaches. Once Susannah and Puzzle found a lost and very drunken gentlemen who was happily gazing up at the stars, and Puzzle approached as happily as the lost man seemed to be himself.
Cat Warren, who works cadaver dogs (usually called HR dogs for “human remains” I believe), knows a lot of Law Enforcement dog trainers, and tells me that many handlers believe that dogs can distinguish people who are in a high state of fear or arousal just based on their scent. (Which sometimes results in the dogs circling back and targeting a cop who is probably as aroused as the guy being chased!) Apparently there is even speculation that bomb sniffing dogs are not just searching for the scent of bomb-making materials, but for the nervous sweat deposited on the bombs by the people who made them. (We’re talking about home-made bombs here.)
To take things even further, apparently some handlers of dogs taught to search out human remains believe that their dogs can tell and indicate if the person died by natural causes or because of some kind of violent trauma. Cat and Susannah label this as “woo woo nonsense,” and I have to admit it seems equally far fetched to me.
These questions are important to those of us with companion dogs, because of the profound impact our own emotional state can have on dogs. Of course, there is no profit in us trying to pretend to be happy if we’re not, but it does raise some interesting issues related to how our own internal state effects that of our dogs. So many possible implications: If we’re afraid another dog will surprise our dog-dog reactive dog, how much does that influence our dog’s behavior? (Even if they can’t see or hear us.) What about therapy dogs? (I use that term loosely to include dogs who do all kinds of Animal Assisted Interventions.) My colleagues and I at Pet Pals talk about how tired our dogs are after just an hour interaction with patients, and their families, at American Family Children’s Hospital. Could it be in part that they are picking up on stress, not just through voice and movements, but through smell? Given the abilities of a dog’s nose, it seems likely that they are picking up on an entire world that we are often unaware of.
What do you think? Can you think of any event in which you felt confident that a dog was responded to the emotional state of a person only through smell? As usual, I will love reading what you have to say. I spend so much time thinking about visual and auditory clues that I have much to learn about scent discrimination, so send in your experiences and we’ll all learn from it.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Weed, plant new plants, work dogs, check on lambs. Weed, plant new plants, work dogs, check on lambs. Do not rinse, but repeat relentlessly. Besides the obvious interludes of work (how dare it interfere!), cooking and taking care of the rest of life, that’s pretty much what is going on at the farm. In other words, I’m in heaven, even though I am barely able to move at night.
Four of our five lambs are thriving, as you can see in this photo. That’s Lady Baa Baa in the front with her twins, (with her mouth open, yelling at me to give her grain), her mom Lady Godiva in the back with her huge single ewe lamb, and yearling Pepper with her little single male nursing away.
However, things are not so good with Cupcake, who finally had a single male lamb last week. All seemed to be going well, but a few days later Cupcake’s udder has hardened. There is little doubt that it is what’s called “hard bag, caused by a nasty, untreatable virus. She is giving some milk, but not much, so we have taught her little guy to drink out of a bottle. Cupcake gets regular sessions of warm, wet compresses and lots of massaging with mint udder cream (smells great!). It’s such a shame, because Cupcake is a wonderful, attentive mother, and her lamb sticks beside her as if they were leashed together.
We discovered the problem right after I took the photo above, and the poor things are stuck in the barn now, because we need to treat her at least three times a day. Hopefully they’ll be out on the spring grass again soon. Cross your hooves for her.
Monika says
Fascinating stuff here! I’m sure dogs are easily able to pick up on emotions, my therapy dog is a master at it. 🙂
Lacey says
I can guess that sometimes a dog could scent on a recent corpse the odor of fear and anger that would be apt to accompany a violent death. That doesn’t sound like “woo-woo” to me.
Kat says
After his session listening to kids read this afternoon Ranger and I ran the gauntlet of people waiting to pick up students. He walked past everyone with only a glance to see if they might be going to pay attention to him then hurried over to a kid sitting in the grass. My visual impression of the kid was he was bored while waiting for a younger sibling but watching the kid ‘come alive’ interacting with Ranger I wondered if it was a lot more than boredom going on with him. What I can say for sure is Ranger basically ignored multiple other potential petters and targeted this one kid and the kid looked much happier and more engaged with things after a few minutes of Ranger time.
I have no trouble believing that Ranger is picking up on things I’m not and assuming it is scent. I know when we are visiting nursing homes there are certain rooms that Ranger will insist on visiting and others that he’ll pass by with only a glance. I also know that when we enter a room Ranger has insisted on visiting I announce that Ranger said they really needed a visit and they’ve all confirmed that that was true. Since to me all the rooms look pretty much alike and one resident sitting quietly in a chair doesn’t say “needs a visit” more than another resident in a chair in another room Ranger is clearly making his determination on something. He’s seeing and hearing essentially the same things I am so something he’s smelling makes logical sense for why he determines that this resident “needs” a visit and this other resident does not. I’ve learned to trust his judgement about these things because he hasn’t been wrong yet.
A couple of dogs in our Therapy Dogs International chapter can’t visit nursing homes and we’ve assumed it was due to the smell although our assumption was that the antiseptics and medications mean it smells too much like the vet’s office although when you think about it the vet’s office probably also has a strong odor of worry and stress both animal and human so perhaps it’s the emotional undertones that are the real reason these dogs don’t like the nursing homes. It’s interesting to think about just how much smell may be affecting the dogs.
Paws crossed for Cupcake and her lamb.
Susannah Charleson says
At issue with HR searching / finds and the scent of emotion is the premise that those chemicals and scents degrade at the cellular level fairly rapidly when the brain and body are not producing them. Yes, absolutely I think dogs can smell fear or anger or joy in a living person–I have seen it in my own and others’ search dogs. But in the deceased, when those chemicals are no longer being produced, their signature fades as decomposition begins to carry the day.
In a very recent death, as in just minutes, could the dog smell the residual biochemistry of emotion prior to death? Perhaps so. There’s considerable debate in search about just how quickly death smells dead to a dog. When does the scent of resident emotions also begin to fade? We know it does fade, but how quickly?
This is another of the thousand times I wish our dogs could talk. I would be happy to know my grandmother, gently greeted by my search dog moments after death, died fearlessly, perhaps remembering the blue kite with the scarlet tail she had as a child.
Rachel says
I can think of many small instances of the boys responding to the emotional state of the people around them. I have two children, ages 6 and 8, and the dogs are especially in tune to the needs of the children. Once one of the kids took a fall and was crying. Sieger immediately put his head in her lap (he’s easily twice her size) and gazed up at her face. When that didn’t work, he began very methodically licking the tears off her cheeks. Her crying quickly turned to giggling, and Sieger visibly relaxed.
Another incident that particularly stands out occurred when Sieger was about six months old. I had taken him to a beach near our home to walk and socialize. It’s a popular spot, and a good place to meet all kinds of people. On a bench above the sand, we passed a group of elderly gentlemen. Two of the three were clearly much older, with walkers parked nearby. One of them had clearly had a fall recently, with bruises and abrasions still apparent on his face. He complimented my “pretty dog” and made a weak move toward Sieger. At that time Sieger was still pretty aloof with strangers, but he approached the man and rested his head in this stranger’s lap. He accepted a couple of pets and then went to the second very elderly gentleman and repeated his performance. He’s never done the same again. I can’t help but think he sensed that both men needed his attention and affection.
Nic1 says
I haven’t seen any studies on this but I am sure that fear ‘smells’. And if anyone is going to smell it, it will be our pooches. I am hyper vigilant when it comes to social situations with new dogs. Mostly, it will be body language that gives my anxiety away I imagine but it would be interesting to study my armpit sweat if there are any volunteers? 🙂
I love this article on olfactory memory in dogs;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/pets/10707829/Dogs-sense-of-smell-signals-love-for-owners-say-scientists.html
Interesting that scent detection dogs have a stronger memory recall? Well exercised neurological ‘muscles’?
Hope Cupcake gets better soon and her little lambykins makes it too! Great to hear that the cycle of life on Redstart Farm is in full summer swing…
How are you getting on with your memoir Trisha?
Marilyn says
For years I’ve trained service dogs. Many of them were trained for persons with autism, mostly children. One of the dog’s tasks was to interrupt the “meltdowns” that are a feature of autism. Once the dogs were placed in service, they quickly learned to pick up on the changing emotions that preceded a meltdown. They successfully interrupted the cycle. I never got used to seeing this. It’s so impressive to watch these dogs work! The dogs reacted consistently to the emotion of their person. Hard to say if it was entirely by smell because body language certainly played a role. But I’ve seen dogs wake up from a nap and immediately detect the start of a meltdown. I believe it has a lot to do with scent.
HFR says
I think people who participate in competitive dog sports will respond with a big “Duh!” When I used to compete in agility, it was very common for handlers to suck on mints or put Vick’s vapor rub on themselves or around their dogs noses (can you imagine?) to keep their dogs from smelling their own performance anxiety. Don’t certain service dogs also use their nose to pick up on some states of emotion for people with behavioral illnesses (PTSD, etc.) Seems like dogs can detect emotions through scent in their sleep (and probably do!). 🙂
em says
Fascinating topic. I feel like this is one of those things where “common knowledge” has assumed that dogs (and to some extent people) can smell emotions since basically forever. (How often have we heard the phrase “smell of fear”?) It’s so interesting to see what actual study can tell us about it.
I’ve often wondered whether Otis might be detecting my emotions through scent- often he will seemingly respond to my emotional state without actually looking at me. I know that he can likely hear me (including things like my respiration and heart rates that would be inaudible to a human), but even so, there are times when he seems downright pyschic and I’ve wondered how much of what he seems to be reading seemingly in my mind is actually being read from my scent. Still, I have absolutely nothing definitive to say on that score, since so many other signals might be in play.
What I can say is that I, myself, have an unusually acute sense of smell, and I CAN smell things like illness, hormonally related changes, and stress (I’m not sure that I can reliably discriminate between anxiety and anger, but the body odor of a stressed person smells noticeably different to me than the body odor of a calm person). If I can, surely my dogs can. After all we know that they can smell some types of cancer cells and low blood sugar, why wouldn’t they be able to smell emotionally caused changes in adrenaline, oxytocin, cortisol, etc.?
Exactly how they process and use this information, I would love to know more about.
LisaW says
I have always thought dogs could smell fear (or whatever it is we excrete while we are fearful), so it seems to me that dogs can smell other emotions or emotional states. One of the many reasons we switched vets was that one of our dogs would not go within 15 feet of the building. The sidewalks leading to the door usually had urine stains and sometimes poop, and she could smell something in these things left behind that she had a severe reaction to. She would drop and freeze and drool. It was more than just an aversion to other dogs’ markings.
One interesting question this brings up for me is do dogs have the ability to smell something and have it conger up a memory or anticipate an event or change their mood? Is aromatherapy (for lack of a better word) effective on dogs?
I hope the lamb and ewe are better.
LisaW says
An additional question re: aromatherapy: The DAP collar and diffuser mimic a nursing canine’s appeasement pheromones and do seem to have a calming effect on dogs. What causes the calming response? How do they work? If DAP has an effect, then why wouldn’t dogs have a response to our emotions and the pheromones they emit? I love this topic, my mind is whirling.
Marjorie says
Actually, just this past week-end my niece was visiting from out of province. We had a group of friends and relatives over for lunch and my niece was feeling particularly sad as she had just lost her beloved grandmother. I was sitting on the sofa next to her and my shy, nervous little dog Taffy who usually clings to me got up and very quietly curled up next to my niece and put her head in her lap. She stayed there all afternoon and allowed my niece to pat her and cuddle her. I was amazed at how calm and quite she was and how she chose to stay with my niece when normally, she would have been stuck to me like glue. I do believe she was tapping in and responding to my niece’s sadness. I think many dogs sense our emotions, but I think some are particularly empathetic.
Margaret says
I think that dogs can sense emotion, and probably pick up on it in a number of ways (just like people) including smell. I also think that some are just better at it than others. My spaniel who I’ve had since a puppy is brilliant at sensing when I’m unwell, but doesn’t react much at all to changes of mood; whereas my little rescue dog, who died a few months ago, never seemed to know if I was ill, but went cuddle mad when I was down – he was clearly picking up on something.
Margaret says
BTW I love your blog!
Trisha says
Loving these comments. I agree that it is so very reasonable to imagine that dogs do indeed pick up on our emotions through changes in our scent. (I’m myself fascinated that research is just beginning to show that humans can too. What great stuff.) Given all the amazing things that dogs can do with their sense of smell (like detecting cancer), it is hard to imagine that dogs couldn’t pick up on changes in our emtional states based on our smell. Especially strong emotions like fear and anger (arousal?) that we know significantly change the entire body’s physiology. But here’s the rub–how do we test that? How do we separate out the cues a dog uses when she responds to someone sitting quietly on a sofa? Visual? Sound? How much is chemical? That’s why I was so interested in the comments of em and Kat who talked about instances in which the dog didn’t have visual contact but seemed to respond to scent alone. (And em, I’m sort of jealous of your great sense of smell. Sort of. I used to smoke cigarettes (2 packs a day!) and everyone told me I’d be so happy when I quit because my sense of smell would improve. It did, markedly. But no one told me about how many bad smells there were in the world! It’s like the “midnight sun,” in that no one ever talks about the “noontime moon” and how blasted dark it is during the day in the winter.)
The question that most interests me in all this, like LisaW is how much our emotions, if conveyed through scent, can influence the emotions of our dogs. Again, it is hard to imagine them not, especially strong ones like fear and anger. But we can’t answer that question without eliminating the possibility of visual, tactile or auditory information. I see a PhD topic emerging here… Anyone looking for one? We really do need good research. Long standing trainer beliefs, like the use of Vick’s vapor rub on the noses of performance dogs to block their perception of their owner’s nerves is a great example of a belief system that desperately needs research behind it. Just because people have been doing for years doesn’t mean it works, right? Or, perhaps it works because of the placebo effect, and the action itself calms the people directly, which the dogs then pick up on…
Regarding the potential of dogs picking up on emotional valences from human remains, I agree absolutely with Susannah that it does seem possible at least if the person has just recently died. I think originally we were all thinking about remains dug up after many, many years, in which it seems unlikely that anything related to the ephemeral changes related to emotional states could possibly remain.
And last, in answer to Nic1’s question about my memoir: 1) Thanks for asking. 2) It went out for review and got raves from all but one extremely discerning and objective reader who said: It’s good. But it could be great if it was substantially re-ordered and revised. What a mixed blessing indeed. I pondered whether to send it off anyway to publishers, but then… how could I not make one more stab at it? So I will be spending the summer and fall revising revising revising. By the end of the year I’ll be done, because I just feel that I have to be. Heaven only knows what shape it will be in by that point, but off it will go. Meanwhile, I’m on a ‘stay-cation’ this week, taking a breather from teaching at UW and starting again on the memoir next Monday. Wish me luck, I’m quite nervous about it. I haven’t touched the book since I started teaching last January. Eeeeeps. Scary stuff this writing.
Leena says
One of my dogs was a master at sensing evil intentions along with being sensitive to other emotions. Since he was 12 weeks old, he reacted very differently to people who were evil. He was not mirroring my feelings, because he was able to do this when the evil wore a normal mask and fooled everyone, even me. He was able to do this in a fraction of a second. It was uncanny. Once, when the person was a decorated war hero and teacher, he immediately got between me and the other person and gave that low menacing growl (this was at 12 weeks old, the same action he had later as a 120 pound adult that would signal that he was ready to fight and die if needed). That person turned out to also be a child molester and murderer. His instincts were only surpassed by his courage and loyalty once demonstrated by fending off a carjacker. I know somehow, he must have detected a different scent in people with bad intentions.
Kat says
I love discussions like this they spark so many interesting discussions and inspire me to observe in new contexts. Take this morning for instance.
My house has a main floor and an upstairs. There is a laundry chute between the master bedroom and the main floor laundry room. Finna sleeps loose in the house and figured out right away that under the laundry chute is closer to me than being outside the closed bedroom door. Our morning routine is my husband gets up first, generally lets Ranger out (Ranger can be outside without supervision) grabs breakfast and his lunch and goes to work. I wake up about the time he opens the garage door and try to persuade myself that I really am awake and to get up. A few seconds after I decide that I am awake Finna begins to bark up the laundry chute. She will continue to do this until I say I hear her and will be down as soon as I go the bathroom and get dressed (and if I don’t use those exact words she continues to bark). I’ve generally assumed it was the routine cues that Finna was using to decide when to start barking except this morning my husband needed to leave an hour early and Finna did not bark me awake (which she’s done on occasion when she needed a potty break desperately so I know it wasn’t just me sleeping through it) when Dad left. I woke up at my usual time and seconds after I decided I really was awake Finna began barking up the laundry chute. There are no visual cues and I would guess the auditory cues would be pretty minimal since I’m not moving around, I’ve rolled onto my back and opened my eyes and closed them again, that shouldn’t be much in the way of auditory cues although my respiration and heart rate probably change so that could be what Finna is responding to. Still I suspect that the sleeping body and an awake body smell differently and since the barking commences a few seconds after I decide I’m awake it makes sense that it is smell she’s detecting and responding to. Fascinating to think about.
liza says
I just got to the blog today & interesting as always.
I don’t know what this means, but I’ll share. My Melvin, Aussie/lab(?) mix is a love bug and bonded to myself and my Mom.
My Dad has acute myeloid leukemia. Despite the physical challenges of his declining health, he still works part-time. He’ll come home exhausted & sit in the Lazyboy before dinner. If Melvin is out on his walk when Dad gets home, he makes a bee-line to the Lazyboy to give Dad his afternoon lovin’. He repeatedly offers his muzzle on my Dad’s arm for petting. Dad & Melvin are not otherwise chummy. Dad is aloof & Melvin protects me from Dad’s hugs or kisses.
Is it scent? Does Melvin understand he’s dying? (We’ve run out of treatments) I don’t know. I am comforted to see them interact. The love of a dog is pure and we take these joys where they come.
Cheryl Scott says
In 1984 I found what would become my heart dog. He was a 3 month old pup that I found living with his siblings in a barn in New England. A big dog with spooky yellow eyes and an independent streak a mile wide. Sam was a difficult dog to train, for me, as I had no idea what it meant to be “part coon hound”. Honestly I had no idea how to train any dog. But he was a joyful companion and the best dog I ever had. Fast forward 3 or 4 years and one evening, I was curled up on the couch watching a movie. Sam was by the fireplace sound asleep. I am a sap for tearjerker stories and just as was about to start crying, Sam jumped up and ran over to lick my face. In the 14 fortunate years we were together, he made lots of friends and always told me who I didn’t like or trust by being aloof and cautious.
Opal says
We have 2 German shepherds, and the male is trained as a medical alert dog for my son. My son doesn’t naturally produce any hormones, and we have a complicated medication regimen for him. When our bodies are under stress, we produce the stress hormone cortisol, which in turn increases blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar among other things. Ivan (the dog) is trained to detect low cortisol episodes, which can be life threatening. I’m sure there are behavior changes that Ivan detects, but we are sure that he can detect the drop in blood sugar by scent. He has also reacted to elevated cortisol levels when our son was being treated with IV steroids due to illness; since the physiological process is the same for severe emotional stress as for physical stress, it makes sense that a dog could detect the odor. For our companion dogs, I’m sure that they can sense the change from our “normal” scent.
Alaska says
One of my dogs clearly seems to be using smell to discern another dog’s emotions. When he is wrestling with another dog and things suddenly go awry, both dogs will stop to regroup, but this particular dog will immediately seek out and sniff the other dog’s anus. He seems to be looking for a clue as to whether the other dog is actually upset, or whether whatever went wrong was just a momentary blip and the wrestling can safely resume.
My other dogs do not do this. In the same situation, they display calming signals toward the other dog, and if they get the same in response will resume wrestling. If not, they will walk away.
Also, this dog does not often sniff anuses in other contexts, just when a wrestling match goes over the top.
Amy says
My dog smells my anger and anxiety. My emotions ran deep during some transitions. Even though that time has passed, my dog picks up on my tone of voice if I’m even slightly upset and will get right in my face to change my demeanor immediately. She’s never been professionally trained. I use positive training tactics with her. It must be the scent that comes with listening and watching body language. We watch out and listen to each other. The scent must be there too! Thanks for the great insight!
Ana Ducoing says
I remember an instance in particular when my brother’s service dog, Jack, visited him in the hospital after he (my brother, who was paraplegic) was recovering from severe septic shock. Jack seemed glad to be visiting but he spent his entire visit sitting on the side of the bed always looking away from him.
Since my brother was quite ill, that behavior was repeated more than once.
One night, Jack even woke my parents up when my brother was going into septic shock a second time.
He saved his life that time.
He’s quite the exceptional dog.
Bri says
While on walks, my dog, Gerry, is sometimes very keen to approach a new person who is across the street or even further away from us. It’s more common for him not to care about saying hi to people while we’re on our walk, unless they approach and make an effort to engage with him, then he’ll get wiggly and kissy. So, I’ve been looking (and maybe that’s why I’m failing) for what might be peaking his interest. Is he picking up on body language or other cues that indicate they would like to pet him? Nope! He has ignored plenty of dog-lovers until they make enough of a fuss over him first, and not every person he has pulled towards has turned out to be interested in him.
I haven’t come up with anything these magic people have had in common yet – though I have pretty limited info to go on, unless I start quizzing them, haha. Your post got me thinking, therefore, that maybe it could be the smell of happiness that draws him in. They’re thinking about or doing something they enjoy when he catches their scent perhaps. I don’t think I’ll attempt any armpit-testing to find out for sure. I kind of hope the smell of happiness isn’t what he’s responding to, because then I don’t have very many happy neighbors!
Wendy says
About violent death vs natural causes: natural causes does not equal peacefull and abcense of agony.
Nic1 says
Thanks for the update Trisha. The break you have had from reading and writing it may help you stand back and see where you can possibly improve it? Really looking forward to reading it!
The interesting thing about the scent of our emotions possibly influencing dogs emotions is how that impacts on their day to day life. Do they ‘feel’ more intensely if it’s a human that they have a particular strong bond with? What do they do if they are therapy dogs? Does sensing stress on people they haven’t a strong bond with impact on their emotions in a negative way or not at all?
Sometimes I feel that my dog isn’t trying to make ME feel better if she senses I am stressed – she is trying to make me feel better so SHE feels better? Does that make sense? I have also noticed some Pavlovian effect here on conditioning – if ever I work at the computer at home, even just sitting in the chair can force my dog to come over and fuss me, even if I am not currently frustrated with technology! In the past, she has learned that me sitting in that chair can result in a frustrated woman when the printer chews up a document etc. and I think that makes her feel anxious, but she can’t be picking up any scent. So, I agree it may be hard to differentiate in a robust study to get good evidence for this. But it would be fascinating to try and figure out how….
HFR says
Count me in as another one who is really looking forward to your memoir. I admire your determination to go back to it. I’m one of those “good enough” kind of people who would have sent it in anyway!
I think “tongue-in-cheek” does not come across very well in text. I was trying to be just that in my comments about performance dogs. I actually think all that mints and vapor rub stuff is over the top. It did more to show others how serious they were about competing than it produced results. I, for one, think it must be horrible for a dog to have to smell Vick’s vapor-rub and can’t imagine it would help them concentrate at all.
About a year ago now, I lost my sense of smell. Nothing the docs have tried has been successful. It’s unclear why it happened but it may have something to do with sinus surgery I had a while ago. Anyway, I can’t tell you how much I miss it. (Altho, cleaning up poop is not as unpleasant of an experience as it used to be.) But I’ve really only thought about the beautiful smells I miss, I haven’t even thought about if I’ve lost some ability to “read” people or to react to situations. That would be mind-blowing. Perhaps using someone like me as a subject would be the way to really test the theory of what scent does for people. I wonder if dogs ever lose their sense of smell and what that would do to them given that it is so much how they navigate the world? Would they stop sniffing or would they continue to try and get around with their nose?
Hope Cupcake and her baby are doing well!
Melissa L. says
I’ve often wondered the same thing, but have never been in a situation where I could be sure it wasn’t some unconscious physical signal I was making or if it was scent alone. It’s totally logical that dogs could sense emotional states, given that they can sense chemical changes that accompany seizures, for example. They must be able to sense the chemicals we give off when fearful, angry, aroused, happy, etc. As you say in your comment, real experimental work is needed to weed out confounding factors such as body language and expression. The closest anecdotal example I can think of was when I was walking a friends very mellow golden retriever at night. A drunk was approaching us on the sidewalk from the opposite direction and I was apprehensive. Panama gave him the eye and a nice, rumbling growl. You could have knocked me over with a feather since this was a dog who was naturally social and open with everyone. But–what was she really reacting to? Did I unconsciously tense up on the leash? Did I slow my walk? Did Panama object to the smell of alcohol that this guy was giving off? Or did she smell my fear? Who knows what the cue was. All I know is that her ability to pick up what were (to me) very subtle signals was amazing.
Gayla says
Best blog topic in a while! Trisha’s comment about our dog reactive dogs sensing our apprehension “even if they can’t see or hear us,” reminds me of the experiments in that old book, ‘The Secret Life of Plants.’ It’s been 35 years since I’ve read it, but if I remember correctly, one of the experiments demonstrated the ability to have a dieffenbachia plant send an electrical charge strong enough to open a garage door! The plants ‘human significant other’ had to be within a certain range. But merely thinking loving thoughts about the plant would cause a measurable enough reaction to activate the door. I think there are larger mysteries than our dogs sense of smell at play here.
As an aside, I bought Echo to train her for cadaver work since our search team only had live find dogs and deceased persons were the end result of the majority of our searches. She isn’t drivey enough and showed an immediate aversion to source… Sigh.
Em says
Thanks Trisha! And let me assure you you’re quite right- living with two middle aged dogs and a senior cat makes having a sensitive nose an extremely mixed blessing indeed. 😉
Frances says
Well, I am sure my dogs pick up on all sorts of signals I am unaware of giving out – body language, pheremones, voice changes – but when Sophy in particular flattens her ears and flutters her tail and eyelashes at strangers it is very often because she has smelled treats in their pockets!
Nic1 says
Study design – What about using deaf and/or blind dogs comparing them to dogs who are not impaired? These dogs would not be able to pick up on any auditory or visual cues of fear or stress. (I know some wonderful deaf/blind dogs who have made great pets and some have also become brilliant scent detection dogs – is this because their sense of smell becomes even more developed due to detrimental effects of loss of both sight and hearing?)
I’m thinking that you could use both familiar and unfamilar people and assess the dogs’ reactions to people who have had a recent stressful or fearful event (ethics alert!) compared to people who are relaxed.
The stressful situation would be so easy to induce if I was taking part – just put me in a room with a computer that doesn’t work and make sure I have a deadline. Job done….
Or, put me in a room and make me watch The Exorcist and have people jump out randomly from behind a curtain…
Relaxing would be so easy, just let me cuddle a dog for a few minutes beforehand 🙂
em says
Melissa L., your fascinating comment reminded me of an experience that I had with Otis, several years ago.
Neither my husband or I are regular or heavy drinkers, but neither have we ever been teetotal, and Otis has never reacted badly to the mild smell of alcohol.
On one memorable occasion, however, my husband went out with some friends to a concert that was walking-distance from our house. He and the friends evidently had a wild time of it, because when the concert finished up, he came home the drunkest I’ve ever seen him before or since- stumbling drunk. We’d had Otis less than six months and he was still sleeping in his crate in the front room at night. I was in bed when my husband came home, clomping up the steps and fumbling with the lock on the front door. Otis, predictably, went bananas- he isn’t typically a barker, but someone banging around outside the door in the middle of the night sent him into full flipout from his crate.
I jumped out of bed, racing to get the door open before Otis woke the whole block. Husband managed to unlock it just as I entered the room, and I remember feeling a wave of relief that now Otis would see it was him and stop barking. Husband and I were both stunned, however, when the flipout continued unabated. Standing in his crate less than ten feet away, Otis didn’t recognize him. Husband spoke and Otis immediately, seeming a bit startled, realized it was him and left off the cacophony. He sniffed deeply at the air, looking anxious, for a long moment before he relaxed. My interpretation is that the smell of booze masked my husband’s scent enough that Otis didn’t recognize it and despite being able to see my husband, still reacted as though he were a (highly dangerous) stranger.
I’ve known a great many dogs who react badly to people who are heavily drunk. My guess has always been that their movements: awkward, impulsive, and uncoordinated, are alarming even to dogs who don’t have any particular history with unpleasant drunks, much the way that many dogs find toddlers alarming. The scent of alcohol might easily become aversive by association. But this was the first time it occurred to me that the smell of alcohol might alter a person’s scent enough that their dog might at least initially fail to recognize it.
Jenny H says
Absolutely! I had an emotional set back earlier this week, and nervous dog has been really clingy. (Well, I suppose that COULD have been my body language, but I I also remember my mother telling me that she HATED her own personal odour when she was afraid.
Elizabeth says
Not quite on point, but about dogs and emotions:
http://heartography.nikon-asia.com/#meet-grizzler
What do you think of this?
parlance (Catherine) says
I sort of hate to put this comment in, but it doesn’t seem totally unreasonable that dogs might scent how people have died, if it’s true, as I’ve – horribly – heard, that some people think meat tastes different if it’s from an animal that died in fear. (So sorry to mention this disgusting belief.)
Mireille says
I would not be surprised that dogs can smell our emotions. I do wonder though how the interpret them. F.i. if they smell that I am angry, will they interpret that as angry at them? Or angry at another person? So I think that smell is one way to “see” our emotions but they will use their other senses as well. Lucky me 😉 since I’ve been training with Spot to respond better to strange dogs. Long story but we got caught in in a vicious circle of him luging and me getting scared (long story. I’ll not bother you with it). One day a trainer took hold of the leash and we went to a place were Spot got to meet all kinds of dogs (sort of dog park, but without the fences). At one moment the trainer let him sniff with a small dog and my heart was in my throat. And I was thinking of you Trish, repeating to myself “Don’t stare, keep your body language loose, act if nothing is the matter” and Spot stayed totally relaxed. But I must have smelled sooooo nervous (and nothing happened, he met about 8-9 strange dogs, and was very nice and polite ;-).
Anyway, what also would puzzel me is how you would interpret the dogs reaction, since my dogs respond very differently to my emotions. One day I got home from work, upset, frustrated and I sat down on the couch and had a good cry. Spot responds by cuddling and licking my face, clinging to me, Shadow bounces away and comes back with a toy. “Let’s play, life is goooood then” . He is not indifferent, absolutely not, but he just has another style of comforting me. Both work though, between them they had me laughing in no time. 😉
Denise says
Hi
I enjoy reading these comments and love for dogs!!
I have an 11 year old golden retriever and husky mix and she’s adorable! She can be a little “nervous” at times but for the most part she is great with people. However the past few years she has become a little less predictable but only in certain situations… If we are visiting or a new person to her is visiting, quite often she will go and say hi and indicate she wants to be petted and even “show” them her back end which for me and my husband she loves to have rubbed! This seems all fine but in recent years she been showing her teeth and has even snapped at people if they seem to spend too much time on her back end!? I have warned people to just try and stay around her head and to watch for her lip if at all. My husband says my anxiety levels go up when Inga is around a stranger too so I’m not sure now whether she is picking up on my anxiety even from across the room and sensing my fear and then snaps? She doesn’t usually do it more than once with a stranger and then she will even go back to that person and want to be petted.
My husband said she did it to him when they first met and now he can love on her anyway at any time
She adores him! I’m puzzled though as to how to approach this one? Maybe I need to leave the room when she meets a stranger and let my husband control the situation and see but I don’t like that she even tries to snap at someone!
Donna S says
I suffer from a seizure disorder, usually well-controlled with medication. Thirteen years ago I bottle-fed a lab/heeler orphan. She turned out to be an exceptionally intelligent and trainable dog. After she saw me have one seizure, she alerted from that time on. Alerted is an understatement; she sat on me if she was able, otherwise she blocked my path, sat still, stared at me and gave a low, immediately recognizable “woof.” I’m trainable too.
We added an amazing Australian Cattle Dog, Sophie, to the family two years ago. Last week I almost stepped on a slug in the mud room and I was so startled that I got goosebumps. Sophie’s hair stood on end simultaneously! If I’d shown an outward sign I would’ve understood her reaction. If dogs smell emotion, they can smell it instantly.
My husband (a family physician) began meditating eight weeks ago. Sophie reacts by urgently demanding his attention after a while. He realized last week that she only interrupts him at a certain point, and that is only when he is visualizes himself leaving his body. We figure if dogs can detect low blood sugar, heart problems, cancer and seizures, we should certainly not put their intelligence in a box.
JB says
I love reading this blog very unique. In my own opinion dogs knows if their master feels sad or happy through their actions/interaction with each other. Dogs have a special ability to detect someone’s feeling.