Odor-Based Recognition of Canine Stress: Investigating Human Olfactory Perception

During the long domestication process, humans and dogs built a strong bond. Attachment in the dog–human relationship is characterized by successful communication and cooperation involving olfactory signals. It is known that dogs are able to smell stress in humans. In this study, we investigate whether humans can also smell stress in dogs and whether dog owners are better at identifying the smell of stressed dogs than non-dog owners. Odor samples of four dogs were taken during a relaxed and stressed situation. A total of 20 dog owners and 20 non-dog owners participated in the experiment in which they smelled the odor samples while blindfolded. Our results show that the participants were unable to correctly discriminate the smell of relaxed dogs from that of stressed dogs. Furthermore, dog owners did not perform better than non-dog owners.