Dogs feel the stress of even strangers: scientists have understood how this happens

Researchers from Queen's University Belfast collected before and after sweat and breath samples from 36 people.

how they completed a stressful taskby arithmetic in the mind. Participants reported their stress levels, and researchers used sweat samples when a person's blood pressure and heart rate increased.

The results showed that people producedifferent smells through sweat and breath when they are stressed, and dogs can distinguish this smell from the usual one when a person is relaxed. It is noteworthy that dogs recognize stress even from strangers. who they don't know.

In during the dog experiment — Treo,Fingal, Soot, and Vinnie—taught how to search for a person using a “stressful” smell, and then signal to scientists which sample meets all the parameters.

One of four dogs participating in the study. Photo: Queen's University Belfast 

Four dogs were presented with scent samplesperson in a relaxed state and in a state of stress. The researchers themselves did not know if there was a difference in smell that the animals could distinguish. Over the course of 36 sessions, each dog was given samples of the participants to sniff. Animals always pointed to the right pattern, distinguishing when a person was stressed.

“Our study highlights that dogs are notneed visual or audio cues to capture human stress. This is the first study of its kind. The experiment proved that dogs feel stress only by breathing and sweating. The results will be useful in training service dogs and therapy dogs,” the scientists conclude.

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