Many dog owners ascribe super powers to their four-legged friends but some of this is a case of over humanising or over ascribing intelligence to our canine companions. Sometimes they are pretty dumb and no they don’t, for example, feel guilt, but are pretty darn good at putting on the right expression to influence humans.
In fact, they seem to be better at reading the emotions of humans than humans are at reading their emotions.
But some recent research has shed some new light on the skills of dogs and how pets in general can reduce stress — if a healthy relationship exists, that is.
First off, a study recently published by Clara Wilson and colleagues of Queen’s University Belfast showed how dogs can smell stress. To do this the researchers recruited 36 human participants. They were then given a fast-paced arithmetic test with their heart rate and blood pressure tracked. They also self-reported their stress levels.
Breath and sweat samples were taken pre test and post test. These were then given to specially trained dogs to identify within three hours of the test. The dogs obviously had to be trained to identify the stressed sample — when we are stressed, we release multiple organic compounds, and this will be present in minute quantities in our breath and sweat.
