Human Scent and Fear from a Dog's Point of View

The Scent of Fear or Panic

Human Scent and Fear from a Dog's Point of View

by Amber Higgins

An excellent working Bloodhound getting credit for his work in Florida, from my Incredible Sue and Homer Bloodlines

Search Dog Handlers have long known that each emotion in a person produces different scents or pheromones (detectable chemical substances) that our dogs are able to detect and follow. Prison Dogs are known to be able to detect a criminal who fears getting caught in a crowd of people who are not afraid and Area Search dogs are able to find lost subjects by smelling panic in the air because a person who is lost soon becomes disorientated, confused and panics, if they are trained for these panic pheromones.

Qualified K9 Trainers can purchase different synthetic scent or pheromones from chemical laboratories that manufacture scents and chemicals for perfume, medical drugs and research companies. Access to these chemicals is not allowed to the public because of the danger of some of the available chemicals.

A 2011 study published in Science magazine showed that tears act as a chemo signal or a chemical substance detectable by others. Not only did men who sniffed tears (which were brought on by negative emotions) find photographs of women’s faces less attractive, the men also reported that they were less sexually aroused, and the scientific data backed it up.

Not only are dogs able to detect different emotions and scents but also people can unconsciously detect whether someone is stressed or scared by smelling a chemical pheromone released in their sweat, according to researchers who have investigated the underarm secretions of petrified skydivers.

This is very interesting and explains why some dogs react to people who are afraid of them and also helps the dog handler to read the dog better through understanding how emotions affect scent.


Click here to read the article in The Guardian 

Pictured below is Bloodhound Search Dog Lilly and her owner/handler Tammy; about 2002

Lilly came to Family Disaster Dogs author's Arkansas kennel as a older dog
from Pam Andrew's well known Florida SAR BH Kennel, after a few years
Lilly went to live with Tammy so Lilly could teach Tammy mantrailing, our dogs do teach us.
Tammy also took home one of the author's Wrinkledpups Bloodhounds, Burt.
The three of them went on to be very successful team...

The newspaper article above is about how Burt and Lilly were Tammy's first Bloodhounds and on their first search after months of training the dogs trailed a missing elderly couple from a parked car in a wooded area to a vacant cabin in the woods. Nothing or nobody was found until the second try or restart when the dogs worked the trail right back to the cabin and refused to leave the cabin. Lilly laid on the old sofa then on the floor next to it, restless and pawing like to make herself a bed, circling to lay down then Burt would stare at a wall and lay there refusing to leave. Tammy called me for advice and I realized the dogs knew more then the eyes could see and advised her to look under the cabin floor and in the walls for evidence to the whereabouts of the missing couple.

The dogs were right, like they always are. The police upon opening up the floor and walls found the bodies of the couple who had been missing for months. It was an incredible and horrible discovery and closed a very well known case. Thanks to the dogs and Tammy dedication.

Never under estimate a dog's nose, especially a Bloodhound.

Below is great article I thought you might find interesting about a how a dog’s nose should be cared for and why the nose is so effective in tracking down odors.

On the Whole Dog Journal Page, Dr. Randy Kidd, DVM, PhD explains “The dog’s nose may be his most powerful organ and it is certainly one of the most dynamic of all animal systems, with activities that range from basic smell detection, to sensing fear, to memory, to emotions, to mate-and pack-selection, on to a genetic history carried from one generation to the next.

Fortunately, disease does not often way lay its functional capability, and fortunately again, most of the diseases of the nose are easily treated naturally.

You can read more of the article by clicking this Link 

Some of my dogs who are related to those in the pictures above; 3 Pictured below were certified SAR

A few of my Wrinkledpups Dogs from 1997-2013

Rea Valley's Incredible Sue 1996-2007
Foundation Dam of Wrinkledpups
Certified Expert Level Mantrailer
active duty 1998-2005

Wrinkledpups Daisy Mayham 2000-2013
She helped write the book

More reading

Teach your dog to find you in the

Family Disaster Dogs book

Tracking Dog: Theory & Methods K9 Scent Training: A Manual for Training Your Identification, 

Tracking and Detection Dog (K9 Professional Training Series)