Dogs Can Smell If You’re Stressed or Relaxed and Adjust Their Behavior For You

Empathy is not reserved for humans. For example, a person can tell if their friend or partner is feeling stressed, and they can change their behavior accordingly. As it turns out, so can dogs. There are animals specially trained to protect the health of humans, such as canines who warn their epileptic owners when they’re about to have a seizure. However, a new study shows that even the average pup can sense how humans are feeling and act accordingly. 

Does People’s Stress Affect Dogs’ Behavior?

A new study shows that dogs can smell when humans feel stressed, and that causes them to act more hesitantly and pessimistically. The University of Bristol, Cardiff University, and the British charity Medical Detection Dogs collaborated during this research. It involved stressing out human participants with impromptu speeches and complex math problems, taking samples of their breath and sweat before and afterward.

The researchers used 36 samples from people who reported increased stress as well as had increases in their blood pressure and heart rate. Then they presented eighteen dogs with sweat and breath samples from when the humans were calm and from when they were stressed. “Some people have looked at can dogs actually detect differences in odor. And they have. But nobody had really looked at how that affects the dog’s emotions,” said Dr. Zoe Parr-Cortes, the study’s lead author.

Read More: “Sheep Pigs” Are real and They’re like Giant Fuzzy Dogs

Optimistic or Pessimistic Pups

At first, the scientists placed bowls of food in one corner of the room, and empty bowls in the opposite corner. So the dogs learned to go directly to the bowls with food and became slow to approach the empty ones. Then the researchers switched out the bowls and placed a third in between the two corners, an “ambiguous” location. Parr-Cortes explained the setup. “Do they approach quickly, optimistic that there’s going to be a food reward in there, or do they approach more slowly, with a more pessimistic outlook that there might not be food in that bowl?” Parr-Cortes explained the setup.

How Dogs Respond to Smelling Stress

Before the bowl was placed in front of the dog, the owner would offer them a sample of the stressed or calm-smelling rags. After conducting this experiment multiple times, switching up the bowl location and the samples, the researcher found that the dogs were more hesitant to go to the bowl in the ambiguous location after smelling the odor of a stressed person. In other words, the dogs appeared pessimistic about it containing any food. However, the odor of the relaxed person didn’t cause any notable change. “It basically shows that the stress smell might affect how [dogs] respond to ambiguous situations,” Parr-Cortes explains. “They might be less likely to try something risky if they think they’re going to be disappointed.”

Read More: Dogs are Born with Ears and Tails. They Should Get to Keep Them.

Evolving Together

In a more practical sense, the study indicates that dogs may think they are less likely to receive a reward if their owner is in a bad mood. Moreover, trying to train a dog while feeling stressed could negatively affect how it learns and feels. Keep in mind, the dogs in the study were smelling the sweat of strangers, not their owners or trainers. Therefore, it might be better to train dogs in relaxing environments instead of areas where people may feel anxious. “Being a species that we’ve lived and co-evolved with for thousands of years, it kind of makes sense that dogs would learn to read our emotions because it might be helpful to them to know if there’s something threatening in the environment or some stressor that they need to be aware of,” said Parr-Cortes. Remember, humans primarily depend on their sight to make sense of the world, but canines rely on smells. 

“An Olfactory Perspective”

Studies like this one demonstrate how service dogs are able to help people suffering from anxiety, PTSD, and similar conditions. However, this research is unique since it examines how human emotions can impact the animals’ perceived reality. “If the odour from stressed humans affects a dog’s emotional state, perception of rewards, or ability to learn, it suggests that stress may not just travel down the lead (as is often stated) but also through the air,” the authors conclude. “These findings highlight the need to consider dogs’ training and working environments from an olfactory perspective.”

Read More: Vets Issue Stark Warning About Certain Breeds Of Dogs