When we’re stressed, our bodies, our attitudes, and even ours show it visibly. But did you know that stress also smells? Yes, the fact that we are nervous can be smelled and is not a trait of being human to be human.
A recently published study concluded that stress has a specific odor and can be felt by dogs. This means that the animal, which is considered to be man’s best friend, can also sense when we are nervous through its keen sense of smell alone. Let’s get a better understanding of how the research was conducted below.
Study on stress odor recently published (Photo: Disclosure)
How was the study conducted?
A new study from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland concludes that dogs can be sensitive to human emotions. This judgment is probably related to the dogs’ fine sense of smell. The research also found that animals can even smell the stress of human sweat and breath.
The article, published in Plos One magazine last Wednesday, September 28, 2022, involved four dogs from the city of Belfast and 36 people. Treo, Fingal, Soot and Winnie, the four puppies and all the other volunteers took part in analysis to prove if the animals could really be that perceptive.
Researchers collected sweat and breath samples from participants before and after solving a difficult math problem. The calculation had to subtract 17 from 9,000, subtract 17 from the result, and continue doing so for three minutes in a row. The volunteer who made a mistake was interrupted and had to restart the account. Then the scientists kept only the samples in which the person’s heart rate and blood pressure increased.
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How do dogs smell stress?
Shortly thereafter, the dogs were trained to identify a class of odors and alert the scientists to the correct sample. Each dog received samples taken from humans just four minutes apart. They were both relaxed and stressed.
The most interesting thing is that all the animals were able to correctly inform the researchers about the stress test of each of the volunteers. At the end of the study, the researchers identified samples with odors from stressed individuals with an accuracy of 94%.
service and therapy dogs
According to Clara Wilson, a PhD student at Queen’s School of Psychology, “The results show that when we’re stressed, we produce different odors through sweat and breath as humans. And dogs can say that even if it’s someone they don’t know.”
“It also helps shed light on the humancanine relationship and improves our understanding of how dogs may interpret and interact with human psychological states.”
The scientists also noted that research found that dogs don’t need visual or auditory cues to perceive human stress. This conclusion suggests that it may be useful in training service and therapy dogs.
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