Viral TikTok videos claiming that dogs can “smell that you love them” have taken social media by storm, with pet owners amazed by the idea that their pet can detect their love.
The heartwarming claim suggests that dogs detect a rise in oxytocin—sometimes called the love hormone, associated with bonding and affection—when humans express love toward them. But is it true?
In one video, a pet owner said: “Today I learned that dogs can smell that we love them. They detect a rise on oxytocin levels in your brain and it makes them feel happy too.”
Can Dogs Smell That You Love Them?
While dogs have an incredibly strong sense of smell, there is no evidence that they can smell oxytocin, the “love hormone.”
However, dogs are highly attuned to human emotions and changes in body chemistry linked to the hormone’s release. With around 300 million olfactory receptors, compared to just 6 million in humans, dogs can sense even the most subtle shifts in scent, including those caused by hormonal changes.
Professional Dog Trainer at Woofz, Annie-Mae Levy, told Newsweek: “As far as I know, there’s no research showing that dogs can directly smell oxytocin. However, studies do suggest they can detect shifts in human mood. The extent and subtlety of this ability aren’t entirely clear—it’s a complex and debatable topic.”
Can Dogs Smell Human Emotions?
While dogs might not be able to smell love, studies have found that dogs can smell chemical changes associated with human emotions.
A 2022 study published in PLOS One found that dogs can identify human stress by detecting shifts in breath and sweat scents.
The study, conducted by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, trained four dogs—Treo, Fingal, Soot, and Winnie—to sniff out stress-related chemical changes in humans.
Scientists collected sweat and breath samples from 36 participants before and after completing a complex math problem. Physiological responses, including heart rate and blood pressure, were also recorded. The dogs were then presented with relaxed and stressed samples from the same individuals and tasked with identifying the stressed sample.
Amazingly, the dogs correctly identified the stressed sample 93.8 percent of the time, confirming that stress produces a detectable change in human odor. Researchers concluded that psychological stress triggers a physiological response, altering the scent of breath and sweat, which dogs can perceive.
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
References
Wilson, C., Campbell, K., Petzel, Z., & Reeve, C. (2022). Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours. PLOS ONE, 17(9), e0274143. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274143
Read the full article here
