Do dogs have a sixth sense for when people are upset? Not quite — but their sense of smell does give them special insight into our stress levels which may impact their own emotions, according to a groundbreaking new study.
The study revealed that even stress from an unknown human can significantly impact a dog’s emotional state, causing empathetic dogs to experience more despondent or gloomy feelings.
The University of Bristol, Cardiff University, and the British charity Medical Detection Dogs were behind the study, which involved 18 dogs and 11 humans. While performing tasks meant to elevate their stress levels, cloth squares were placed under the participants’ armpits to collect their scent.
After the humans stressed and perspired, the researchers put the dogs in a room with two bowls: one contained food, and the other was empty. The dogs were then presented with one of the strangers’ sweat-stained cloths and allowed to sniff it before a third bowl was placed in front of them.
Researchers discovered that if the dog picked up the scent of a stressed stranger, the dog was more nervous about approaching the third bowl. But if the odor was from a calm stranger, the dog had no trouble walking up to it. The dogs reacted similarly after mixing the test with all three bowls in different orders.
There’s no question that we have a special bond with our dog companions. Dogs are known to detect the stress hormone cortisol in humans and can affect our emotions. Interacting with dogs has been shown to reduce our stress levels and make us happy by increasing our oxytocin levels.
We now know that our stress levels can negatively affect our beloved companions’ emotions, which means we’re even more interconnected than we realized.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Zoe Parr-Cortes, pointed out to NPR that smell is a dog’s most influential sense. So it makes sense that when we stress out, we also influence our dog companions, such as Darwin, her canine best friend.
“I’m just aware that even though he looks pretty chilled and laid back, there’s probably things going on in his mind that are still affected by my stress and other things going on,” Parr-Cortes said.
Lady Freethinker applauds Dr. Zoe Parr-Cortes and her fellow researchers for adding to the growing body of evidence that animals experience emotions similar to our own.
