Sniffing Out Emotions

By Emily Junaedi, 2027

Published 4/2/2024

Has your pet ever come to comfort you when you were sad or stressed?  Pets’ seemingly therapeutic sixth sense is more real than you may expect; in fact, research suggests your pets can sniff out your emotions.

In a psychological poll, 86% of the participants said that their pets have had a positive impact on their lives; this was likely due to their pets’ acute responsiveness to their emotions. Many animals, including dogs and cats, have a keen nose, meaning they have the ability to sense when their owners are stressed or nervous because of their strong observational senses. When we are stressed, we get surges of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which dogs can smell. Our emotions also cause pheromone changes that pets can sniff out and associate with particular feelings. Pets analyze those scents, as well as their owner’s facial expressions, and provide comfort accordingly. Although both cats and dogs can perform these abilities, they react to them differently. Cats tend to empathize and let their owner’s feelings affect their own moods. Dogs, on the other hand, tend to provide direct comfort to their owner.

Pets can also sniff out illnesses afflicting their owners. Infections cause a pet-detectable change of chemicals and hormones in our bodies. Aside from knowing when to be more clingy to their owners, pets have applied this ability to many practical situations. Dogs, for example, have shown that they can identify cancer, diabetes, and seizures. 

Thomas Williams was one owner that was saved by his pet’s extraordinary nose. His cat, Garfield, kept sniffing Williams’ leg and staying by it. When Williams asked his nurse about his cat’s strange behavior around his leg, she responded that animals could detect illnesses. After going to the hospital, doctors discovered that there was a blood clot in his artery, and they were able to heal Williams in time. Williams now calls his cat his “guardian angel.”

While your pet will hopefully never have to sniff out a life-threatening illness in your body, you can still appreciate the day-to-day effort they put into empathizing with you. The next time your pet seems to mimic your emotions or get overly clingy when you feel down, you should thank them for their intrinsic sixth sense.