Studies have shown that dogs are able to sniff emotions and dog lovers instinctively know it’s true. But did you know that dogs have asymmetrical noses when it comes to fear odors? The suggestion is that they can “feel” or perceive emotional scents differently depending on the source. If you are the source, your dog’s sensitivity is very different than other sources.
Although studies in the past have reported asymmetries in the nostril use of dogs when sniffing various emotion based stimuli, a new study found that the nostril used depends on if the scent is human based. When dogs were placed in a stressful situation by themselves or with other dogs, they used the right nostril. The right nostril is believed to be linked to the right hemisphere of the brain. In humans, the right side is thought to be related to spatial and environmental perception and so it seems for dogs. If a dog has intuition, it would probably reside on the right and being able to respond to environmental cues with the right hemisphere seems to make sense.
On the other hand, dogs consistently used the left nostril to perceive human odors collected during fearful situations (emotion-eliciting movies) and physical stress, suggesting the prevalent activation of the left hemisphere. The left side for human seems to relate to logical thinking and reasoning. Perhaps your dog is letting you perceive the environment for him and then reasons that if you are frightened he should be too.
This is probably most useful because when you are experiencing a stressful situation, it will be important for you to know that your dog is allowing you to distinguish fear for him. If you are able to feel calm, your dog is likely feel calmer as well. It is a big responsibility for you to be such an important leader and friend to your dog, but given all that they do for us, it is the least we can do.
- The dog nose “KNOWS” fear: Asymmetric nostril use during sniffing at canine and human emotional stimuli. Behav Brain Res. 2016 Feb 10;304:34-41. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2016.02.011. [Epub ahead of print] Siniscalchi M, d’Ingeo S, Quaranta A.
