Dogs, known as humans’ loyal companions, can accurately read their owners’ feelings and emotions and even take on the same state themselves. For example, if a dog sees its owner in fear, it can sense the smell associated with that fear and may become frightened too.
For a long time in the United States and Western countries, dog owners have acknowledged that their pets’ moods change after observing them, and that dogs sometimes clearly imitate their owners’ emotions. It is now known that dogs can also detect human emotions and feelings through smell.
Dr. Biagio D’Aniello from the University of Naples in Italy said that dogs’ sense of smell has always been underestimated. Their ability to smell is many times stronger and more remarkable than that of humans. To study this, Dr. D’Aniello and his colleagues conducted several experiments on dogs.
In the first stage, human volunteers were shown frightening, happy, depressing, and fear-inducing videos, during which samples of their sweat were collected. This sweat was then presented to dogs, and their heart rate and other measurements were recorded. When dogs smelled sweat produced during fear, they became noticeably more anxious, their heart rate increased, and their owners had to calm them down.
The research showed that dogs use multiple senses to understand the psychological states of their owners and other humans, and they adjust their behavior accordingly. In other words, by smelling human scent, dogs become aware of their owners’ emotions.
Another study has also shown that these emotions are clearly expressed on the animals’ faces. Dogs show more facial expressions when a human is looking directly at them, indicating that they are highly sensitive to human attention.