Spontaneous orienting of untrained companion dogs naïve to human epilepsy toward odor samples from an unfamiliar human in a controlled non-social paradigm: a proof-of-concept.

BACKGROUND: Evidence for spontaneous seizure detection by dogs remains limited. This study examined whether ictal odor cues elicit behavioral responses in untrained companion dogs. OBJECTIVE: To test whether dogs naïve to human epilepsy show spontaneous discrimination of ictal versus interictal odor. METHODS: Thirty dogs, without prior seizure exposure, freely investigated three odor stations (ictal, interictal, blank) using sweat samples from a single unfamiliar donor in controlled, non-social conditions. RESULTS: Dogs were more likely to investigate the ictal odor first than expected by chance (Monte Carlo p=0.029), indicating an early orienting bias. No differences emerged in sustained engagement. Structured exploratory patterns occurred only in odor conditions (ictal p=0.001; interictal p=0.002), not in the control (p=0.715). CONCLUSIONS: Ictal odor may carry salience sufficient to influence initial attention in naïve dogs. However, findings are based on a single donor and require replication with multiple individuals to assess generalizability.