Human body odor affecting dogs’ emotions

Dogs are influenced by the smell of human stress and make more pessimistic choices, according to research led by the University of Bristol’s Veterinary School, published in the journal Scientific Reports. The scientists studied 18 groups of dog owners through a series of tests with different human odors. During the tests, the dogs, aged eight months to ten years, were trained that when a food bowl is placed in one location, it contains a treat, but when it is placed in another location, it is empty. Once a dog learned the difference between these bowl locations, it approached the location with the treat faster than the empty location. The researchers then tested how quickly the dog would approach new bowl locations that were between the two original ones. Fast approaching reflected “optimism” about the availability of food at these locations and was an indicator of positive emotional state, while slow approaching indicated negative emotion. Each dog was exposed to either […]
Source: News Beast

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