The Power of a Dog’s Sense of Smell

Most of you probably know that dogs have a keen sense of smell. They can detect drugs, bomb, diseases and much more.

We can now add to this list that dogs can sense moods in people just from using their nose.

In this study from Queen’s University Belfast, they had four dogs that the researchers trained to detect from sniffing odors alone, with no visual or audio cues, as to whether the person was anxious, having a panic attack, fearful or relaxed. The researchers had 36 people working on solving a difficult math problem while they collected samples of the participant’s breath and sweat before and after the task.

The participants self-reported their stress levels and the researchers only used samples from participants whose blood pressure and heart rate increased.

Next, the researchers collected samples when the participants were relaxed. 

When the dogs sniffed the different samples, they all correctly identified each person’s stress and relaxed sample just from using their nose. 

This means your dog doesn’t have to see you to know what’s going on. In addition, when the sample was of fear, the dogs became fearful.

To me the most interesting part of this study that the researchers didn’t discuss is how quickly we reveal how we are feeling through our body’s sweat and our breath. When you are in a stressful situation, it means the stress is immediately affecting your body. It also means when you are in an on-going stressful situation it’s having a major effect on you.

It also means when you move into a relaxed state, your body responds immediately with the change in your breath and in your sweat. To me, this shows how immediately our bodies respond to our emotions. So…the next time stress hits you, relax as soon as you can, your body will be much appreciative of the switch! 

If you don’t know how to relax, then you might want to get my book in digital format (the paperback is sold out) called Managing Your Stress in Difficult Times: Succeeding in Times of Change. You can find it at https://www.teplitz.com/Managing-Stress-Teplitz.html.(Reported Bark&Whiskers.com, 2/15/23)