“One’s Nose is Never So Happy…” has nothing to do with dogs, except for the nose part. Here’s the full quote: “It has been observed that one’s nose is never so happy as when it is thrust into the affairs of another, from which some physiologists have drawn the inference that the nose is devoid of the sense of smell.” – Ambrose Bierce
Apologies for such a ridiculous diversion, but reading it made me spit out my tea while I was looking for interesting quotes about the sense of smell, so I opened with it.
The sense of smell is indeed what this post is about, and whether some scents can act to calm or relax dogs who are in stressful situations. The bottom line is yes, according to a study done by Jonathon Binks et. al. (2018, The behavioural effects of olfactory stimulation on dogs at a rescue shelter. Applied Animal Behaviour Science). To summarize, they presented 15 dogs in a Gloucestershire shelter with cloths scented with the essential oils of coconut , vanilla, valerian and ginger. Each cloth contained only one scent, and every dog received cloths with each scent in the study. In two other conditions, the dogs received either no cloth or a cloth with no extra scent. The frequency of vocalizing, resting, sleeping, and the position in the kennel (front or back) were recorded before and after the presentation of the cloths, which were placed on the floor of the kennel 30 minutes before data was gathered.
All four odors significantly decreased the rate of vocalizations, and increased the amount of time dogs were found to be resting or sleeping. Interestingly, ginger and coconut were more effective at eliciting sleep in the dogs. Does that mean we should all go out and purchase essential oils of ginger and coconut if our dogs won’t settle down? I’d say not necessarily, but… I am thrilled with the importance of this study, in that it raises important questions of the effect of scent on a dog’s behavior, and begins a line of inquiry that has seen far too little interest in years past.
By the author’s own admission, there were some design flaws in this study. The scents were offered to every dog in the same order, which brings up the potential of order effects. The sample size was small, as was the number of scents tested. However, this is a fantastic first look at an important issue in canine behavior. The issue has received some attention in our own species–we with our incompetent primate noses–and scent has indeed been found to have effects on human behavior. For example, lavender has been shown to help people sleep better (and many say it has the same effect on dogs). However, others argue that any effect of scent on human behavior is due to learning, not to an inherent quality of the scent itself. I suspect the reality is that it’s a combination of both, but the science of scent is not my wheelhouse, nor is it a particularly well-studied field.
But studies like this always make me curious, and I am tempted to try it out on my own dogs the next time we are traveling. Maggie is always a bit anxious in a new setting, and I’ll take along some lavender and ginger the next time we hit the road.
What about you? I’d love to hear about your experiences with the effect of scent, either on you or your dogs. I can say myself that some scents truly do seem to calm me or lift my mood, while others can do the opposite. (Moldy air conditioning units in hotels come to mind. As does car exhaust, which immediately puts me in a bad mood.)
MEANWHILE, back on the farm. We’ve pretty much gone from winter to summer here in the blink of an eye. A little over two weeks ago it snowed 6-7 inches, now the weeds are growing so fast I can’t keep up. We had a deluge of rain last week, and due to some remodeling, we now have pits of mud around the house deep enough to envelop dinosaurs. We rescued Tootsie out of one before she sank into oblivion…
The good news is that the songbirds are back, and the tulips are coming on strong. I totally get why people went crazy over tulips years ago!
Minnesota Mary says
I’m a long-time foster home for a dog rescue. I’ve never had separation anxiety with my fosters due to several reasons. I don’t believe that scent alone is the reason, but it’s part of the whole picture. I would suggest that a combination of aromatherapy (critical to use pure essential oils by the way), calming classical music, predictable routine, other well-behaved dogs for company and strong human leadership are the best way to alleviate fear in a dog. My fosters visibly calm down when they learn that I will protect him/her, understand what to expect will happen next, enjoy the security of well-behaved doggy companions and are exposed to calming sounds and scents. I can almost pinpoint the day and time when the stress goes away and they visibly relax. Scent is definitely part of the whole picture and lavender, coconut and ginger are my favorites. Oh, and I have some Valerian root hanging in my bedroom, need to soak it to revive the scent though!
Mel F says
So interesting to read this. I may have to try some scents with my current puppy mill dog.
I used scents in a different way with my first puppy mill rescue. Daisy was terrified in the backyard because of all the sounds (cars driving by, neighbor pounding on wood, etc.). I would place treats or kibble in the yard to help her start to use her nose and to serve as positive reinforcement for hanging out in the backyard. We started off with small sessions and gradually lengthened them as I started hiding treats further out in the yard.
I had no previous experience with dogs like Daisy, so it was a guess that this could help her. In her case, it worked. We played this game all through her life because she loved it so much.
Becky Garbarino says
As another rescue volunteer, I can attest to the benefits of aromatherapy and calming music. When transporting dogs, I put a cotton ball with essential lavender oil in the cab of my Jeep and turn on the iCalmDog player. It doesn’t help every dog, but many seem to benefit from one or the other….or both. I think I need to try some of the other scents as well. I also volunteer at a small municipal shelter and am wondering if using an essential oil electronic diffuser would help calm those dogs. I have donated a CD player and set of iCalm CD’s, and I have noticed a big difference in the amount of barking. This gives me some interesting food for thought and discussion with the animal control officers.
Mason Small says
Recently I bumped essential oils to the top of my ‘how to keep my dogs calm’ list. A friend of mine had used a essential oil spray to keep her dog calm in the car, and found it very effective. I decided to try it, along with a diffuser with the same oils, during the hormone havoc that occurs each spring (when one of my female dogs goes into heat and my intact male becomes highly agitated).
The difference was amazing; he slept through the night, did not go off his food, and his peak excitement behaviours lasted three days rather than five or six. Because my female’s symptoms are always more subtle, except when she’s ovulating, I found it harder to discern any impact on her.
I noticed that the relaxing oils also had a mostly negative impact on me to begin with, though: more brain fog, tiredness, and none of the usual extra energy surge I get when dealing with the hormone drama. After the first couple of days some of these symptoms lifted — and I began to enjoy the relaxation effect!
Anyhow, it seems like scent is a powerful tool to deal with dog stress. I plan to use it during future heat cycles (if I decide not to spay) and whenever any of the animals are ill, because that’s when household stress is at its highest.
leslie krouk says
Check Dr. Melissa Shelton’s sites…animaleo and oilyvet.com…best info out there IMHO.
Sarah says
More Tootsie!
Joan says
I wonder how much novelty had an effect.. it would be interesting to study other objects and other scents too. And i wonder if there was a control cloth with no scent. And i wonder if the effect would lessen or increase over repeted exposure. So many interesting possibilities for research
Sue says
Very interesting. Also made me wonder if the scent (i.e. essential oil) is what created the change in behaviour or the sniffing (i.e. activity, as I assume that the dogs would have sniffed the cloth on the kennel floor). This might have been explained in the study I guess… Perhaps it’s both!
Scent games are certainly often billed as helping with calming down anxious dogs and helping with focus etc.
Anne says
I have never tried those scents on my dogs (although the smell of vanilla does make me happy!), but I did have a really great experience years ago with using pheromones with a rescue dog who had extreme separation anxiety. I used the DAP spray (not the diffuser which is less effective) when I had to leave him in the car, or when I put him in his crate (with a blanket over it to hold in the spray). I know that some have had success with it, and some have not, but to my great happiness, the reduction was dramatic. I still used positive behavior reinforcement and baby steps to overcome his separation anxiety completely, and soon it was gone completely. I’m not sure why you don’t hear much about this product today.
Jenny H says
ha, ha! I think I would find both ginger and coconut relaxing. I am unaware of valerian having any smell, and I don’t particularly like vanilla.
On the other hand ‘smells’ tend more to stress me than calm me. Moulds, mildews coming top of the list. I don’t like lavender but tolerate it because it kills those pesky mould spores. Traffic smells, petroleum, the ghastly smells that many women and increasing men now bather themselves in, unclean humans and burning waste.
So just may the ‘smells’ in the Gloucestershire shelter worked more by over-riding the stress-causing odours??
Jenny H says
I wonder though whether ‘aromatherapy doesn’t work more by calming down the human who put the scents in place. I know from my own amazing experience that calming oneself helps your nervous dogs FAR more than anything else. (Read Paul Owens; “The Breath of Life”)
I would also beware of ‘essential oils’ (or more correctly called ‘volatile oils’). Many can cause serious hayfever (sinus blockages and migraines in susceptible people. I would presume that similarly they can cause problems in dogs (an other animals).
I also know that the smells my dogs enjoy are VERY different from those that I enjoy. My dogs LOVE the cat litter box, bad fish on the beach, other dogs’ urine and faeces, assorted animal tracks and bird poop.
Perfumes, ‘essential oils, ‘air fresheners’ all cause me grief. I don’t think my dogs like any of them either.
LisaW says
@ Anne, we used the DAP collar on Olive when she was truly anxious and going through confinement due to a knee injury. It did work, and we tested it on our very small sample of 1 and could see obvious differences with and without while giving her the accompanying roster of supplements. This was about six years ago, and I’ve seen it recommended on other sites lately, so it hasn’t disappeared entirely.
Love the Tootsie picture.
Lucille W. says
I don’t know about essential oils, and I plus my maltipom, Possum, have serious reactions to both natural and toxic odors. My story revolves around ” Ginger”, my childhood into adult German Shepherd. I went to visit my grandparents in Maine in Autumn during hurricane season. Of course ‘way back then, our dogs weren’t included in family trips.( What a difference a few decades make!) Instead of being brought to the Vet for boarding, Ginger stayed at home with my aunt. We received a panicked call that the hurricane had hit hard and we started home. Roads closed as we passed through, getting home to several inches of water in the kitchen and my distraught aunt. She proceeded to tell me that Ginger had found an old mitten of mine, and used to hold it in her mouth and flip it over her nose every time she layed down for a nap or over night. She carried it with her all day long, always grabbing it to bring with her from place to place. That was a lesson in how much scent can help a dog that is feeling lonely and isolated. She was at home on her regular routine, and my aunt was a real ” Dog Person”. I still have no idea how that mitten that would have been packed away in the Spring managed to surface, but it did, and Ginger taught us the importance of scent to her and probably all other dogs too. I wonder if the scents vary so that the dog reacts to familiar scents used in cooking at home on a regular basis. Just an anecdote, and from about 6 decades ago, but just as valid as any tests done today. Love the column and the photos. You have changed our lives for the better with your wisdom.
Marianne J. says
I do think familiar smells can be reassuring for dogs. Fifty years ago we had a German Shorthair Pointer named Pepper. She lived to hunt with my dad, but loved cuddling with my mom the rest of the time. When my mom was on an extended business trip one year, my dad couldn’t find Pepper one day, when he got home from work. He walked around the house getting increasingly worried about where Pepper was hiding. He finally walked into their bedroom and heard a rustling in my mom’s closet. There was Pepper, curled up on a “nest” she had made of mom’s dresses that she had pulled down off the hangers. Interestingly enough, she only pulled down my mom’s favorites, obviously the dresses my mom had worn the most. Pepper continued to den up in mom’s closet until Mom came home a couple of weeks later. Dad got into trouble for not rescuing the dresses!! Pepper was fussed over for missing mom. 😀
Hali says
Knowing some of the disgusting smells that dogs like, if I were to design dog candles, they would have names like, “Fifi’s Fire Hydrant” or “Dead Fish Down at the Wharf” “Sparky’s 3-Day Squirrel” or simply, “Dead Thing The Dog Dragged In.”
A friend said that I have the nose of a pregnant woman. My sister said, “You have the nose of a pregnant DOG!” Candles, plug-ins, essential oils ( “pure, natural” or otherwise ) are pretty much an instant migraine. Lavender, for me, is one of the worst. I have found that rose geranium oil is EXCELLENT for repelling ticks or getting them to detach if they have latched on. However, while it smells good at the start, the constancy of the smell sparks a migraine. And my dogs hate it. The same with any of those essential oil flea/tick/mosquito repellents, even just using food-grade lemon oil, they go running. (VERY important to be food grade or not reachable; if they lick some essential oils like tea tree, they can die). It’s not just the smell, it’s that it doesn’t go away!
Solveig says
Thank you for this awesome article. The sense of smell is just as important as all other senses. Therefore we should not forget him. In aromatherapy, this knowledge have been used for a long time.
Maria says
Tootsie is absolutely adorable in that photo!
I agree: More Tootsie!
Lisa says
Really awesome study! But I am actually not really surprised that dogs respond to certain scents, since their nose is so sensitive. I am hoping they will repeat their study with different conditions!