Dogs are amazing creatures with even more amazing noses, with some breeds capable of smelling things up to 12 miles away. Now a new study has found that their primordial sense goes even deeper and they can even detect your mental and emotional state with their schnozes.
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00:00Dogs are amazing creatures with even more amazing noses, with some breeds capable of
00:09smelling things up to 12 miles away.
00:11Now a new study has found that their primordial sense goes even deeper, and they can even
00:15detect your mental and emotional state with their schnozzes.
00:19Researchers presented dogs with sweat samples from humans that were not familiar to them,
00:23those that were collected during relaxation and while under stress.
00:26They then had the dogs undergo a learning session involving a food bowl.
00:30The researchers found that the canine participants approached the food bowl much more optimistically
00:35when it was placed near the relaxed sweat samples.
00:38Meanwhile they were much less likely to approach the bowl with the associated stressed sweat.
00:43Not only revealing that dogs can smell the odorized stress hormone in our bodies, but
00:47that it may actually affect their decision making.
00:49With the study's senior author Nicola Rooney saying about their findings, quote, owners
00:54know how attuned their pets are to their emotions, but here we show that even the odor
00:58of a stressed unfamiliar human affects a dog's emotional state, perception of rewards and
01:03ability to learn.
01:04They added that this could be invaluable information for dog boarders or for those who are traveling
01:09with a canine companion.