Dogs May Be Smelling Our Stress

Emphasizing our strong bonds that we have with our dogs, a new study reveals dogs can smell the stress odors humans produce.

By Erin Berge
Sep 28, 2022 7:45 PMSep 28, 2022 7:54 PM
Dog smelling
(Credit: Mokuahi/Shutterstock)

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Your dog doesn’t just use its nose to find leftovers on the counter or that aging piece of garbage on your walks. It actually uses its nose to discover critical information, like recognizing family members, identifying predators and, of course, locating food. 

And this incredible sense of smell could also inform dogs about their human companions. A new study published in PLOS ONE found that dogs can detect when humans are stressed based on the odor profiles we produce. The study sheds more light on our relationship with dogs and could improve training for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) service dogs.

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