Dogs can sense when we're stressed, study suggests

Dogs could tell the difference between human breath and sweat traces before and after a stressful task. According to a new study by Clara Wilson of Queen's University Belfast, UK, and colleagues, dogs can accurately identify changes in human breath and perspiration that are caused by the physiological processes connected to an acute psychological stress response with a 93.75% accuracy rate.

Humans have traditionally used dogs as skilled sniffer animals, using them to detect anything from drugs to coronavirus-infected people. According to the study, this is because they can smell volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.

The results of this job suggest that dogs are able to identify VOC changes brought on by acute negative stress, even though the dogs in this study were taught to communicate that they could distinguish between (odors), according to the study.

More research is required to determine how an untrained dog can transmit or understand the stress odors, but at least this study showed dogs can sniff the odors connected to human stress.

According to researchers, the information can advance our understanding of how support dogs and their people who suffer from anxiety or PTSD interact.