Dogs can sniff out stress on owner's breath
- Published
Four dogs - pets volunteered by their owners - were trained to "choose" one of three scent canisters
Our canine companions have proven once again how finely tuned they are to our feelings - this time in a scientific sniffing test.
Scientists discovered that dogs can smell stress in our breath and sweat.
Four dogs - pets volunteered by their owners - were trained to "choose" one of three scent canisters.
And in more than 650 out of 700 trials, they successfully identified a sample of sweat or breath that had been taken from a stressed person.
The researchers, at Queen's University Belfast, hope their study, , will help in the training of therapy dogs.
Dogs experience their world through smell. And their highly sensitive scent-detection abilities are already used to detect drugs, explosives, and illnesses, including certain cancers, diabetes and .
"We had lots of evidence that dogs can pick up smells from humans that are associated with certain medical conditions or disease - but we don't have much evidence that they can smell differences in our psychological state," lead researcher Clara Wilson said.
A dog's nose is a highly sensitive chemical detector
The 36 human volunteers reported their stress levels before and after completing a difficult maths problem.
Each can contained a sample of their sweat or breath from before or - as long as their blood pressure and heart rate had also increased - after.
And if the dogs, Treo, Fingal, Soot and Winnie, stood still or sat in front of the "stressed" sample, they were rewarded with a favourite dog treat.
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- Published28 April 2022
- Published2 July 2019
