Research: Dogs can detect stress in humans
Scientists have discovered that dogs can recognize stress in human breath or sweat, the BBC reported.
Four dogs, pets that participated in the study with permission from their owners, were trained to "choose" one of three odor containers. In more than 650 of 700 tests, they successfully identified a sweat or breath sample taken from a person under stress.
Researchers at Queen's University Belfast hope their study, published in the journal Plos One, will help train therapy dogs.
Dogs experience the world through smell. Their highly sensitive abilities to detect certain odors are already being used to detect drugs, explosives and diseases, including certain types of cancer, diabetes and even covid.
"We've had a lot of evidence that dogs can smell human odors that are associated with certain medical conditions or diseases, but we don't have a lot of evidence that they can smell certain differences in our mental state," said lead researcher Clara Wilson.