What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to investigate if dogs can differentiate emotional odors from other dogs and how they respond behaviorally.

February 27, 2026Scientific ReportsOpen Access

Dogs (Canis familiaris) distinguish conspecific emotional chemosignals

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Demonstrates dogs can discriminate emotional odors from conspecifics, suggesting advanced social communication.

The aim is to investigate if dogs can differentiate emotional odors from other dogs and how they respond behaviorally.
Used a habituation-discrimination paradigm with 43 dogs
Presented dogs with odor samples from unfamiliar dogs after joyful, stressful, and baseline events
Measured investigation time and behavioral responses to different emotional odors
Dogs showed longer investigation times for novel odors, indicating successful discrimination
Dogs differentiated between joy, stress, and baseline odors
Distinct behavioral responses included increased proximity to owners and reduced proximity to strangers when exposed to stress odors

Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.

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