Did you know that dogs can smell bad people? Yes, it’s true. Dogs can sense evil in a person the moment they meet them. Just some eye contact and a few sniffs are enough for them to deduce who is a good person and who isn’t. And now science has confirmed too that dogs can smell bad people. On this International Dog Day, let’s find out how they use this superpower of theirs.
A cat or a dog? When we think of getting a pet we often narrow down our choices to a cat or a dog. Dogs need more care and nurture and understand human emotions better and cats are more autonomous and carefree animals.
According to a lot of scientific research, dogs have a highly evolved sixth sense and are much more sensitive to human emotions. What is more, dogs can also sense if someone is trustworthy.
In a study conducted by Akiko Takaoka of Kyoto University in Japan, it was discovered that dogs would not trust someone who lied to them and they could determine if someone was unreliable.
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How Can Dogs Recognize Bad People?
Dogs use their previous experience to understand if someone is unreliable.
The experiment was conducted with 34 dogs and was divided into three parts. In the first part, dog owners pointed them towards food with containers and dogs ran towards it.
In the second part, the owners pointed toward containers without food and tricked dogs into running toward them.
In the third part, it was discovered that dogs would not follow the pointing hands. They used their judgment from previous experience to judge if the person was unreliable.
Science Behind Dogs Sensing Bad People
Dogs have highly evolved sixth sense and are also very receptive to intricacies of human behavior.
When a person has bad intentions or is about to do something bad, his heart rate increases and there is a rush of certain chemicals like adrenaline that makes the person sweat more than usual.
Since dogs have a very keen sense of smell and they are hyper-alert every moment, they can pick up on these scents and changes in behavior within seconds and react to them.
A dog’s instincts are very sharp and they are more vigilant as they live totally in the present moment, they can sense danger and bad vibes, and they react either by becoming fearful or become hyper-aggressive in their demeanor.
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Dogs also control how others communicate with their owners.
More research proves that dogs are also sensitive to social cues and are extremely loyal to their owners and try to control how others communicate with their owners.
In an experiment, dog owners asked people for help and afterward, these people offered a treat to the dogs.
Dogs took a treat from only those people who helped their owners and refused to take treats from people who denied help to their owners. They did not get friendly towards those people or took a treat from them who were rude towards their owners in any way.
Dogs clearly understand the communication between their owners and strangers.
One more study done by Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews proved that Dogs clearly read the communication between their owners and strangers.
In the experiment, dog owners asked 2 groups of strangers for little help. Dogs showed a good understanding of social cues and avoided people who mistreated their owners.
Scientists have also proved that dogs can understand our gestures and facial expressions.
According to Brain Hare, Chief Scientific Officer at Dognition, “Dogs, are not mindlessly listening to us when we gesture. They assess the information we give them based in part on how it could help them achieve their goals. Many family dogs could avoid your gesture if you point incorrectly and use their memory to find a hidden treat.” explains Hare.
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Dogs Are Smarter Than We Think
It is scientifically proven that dogs are intelligent creatures but their intelligence is different from ours. “Dogs are very sensitive to human behavior. However, they have fewer preconceptions. They live in the present moment, they don’t think about the past and are not able to make plans for the future,” explains John Bradshaw, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s vet school.
They can decipher our gestures and emotions, understand social cues and find out if someone is unreliable based on their previous experience and judgment.
They have extremely evolved sixth sense and heightened awareness as they live in the present moment without having any consideration for the past or future.
Next time your dog is suspicious of a person, you might as well pay attention to his cues.
If you ever find yourself in a situation where your dog does not like someone or acts differently in front of them, you can very easily find out if they have some reservations about this person.
If your dog is generally happy and excited and trusting of new people, he would likely jump and play around with that person, he would wag his tail, lick him or bark or make a silly noise and goof around.
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But if he acts strange around someone like acts fearful or runs away from that person or drops his ears or drops his tail between his legs or becomes hyper-aggressive and barks and growls at someone or snaps at them and tries to protect you from them, then you should take cues from all these red flags and be wary of this person because dogs can smell bad people.
Want to know more about how dogs can smell bad people? Check this video out below!
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