Something in the air - does just the smell of stress affect dogs?
An article cut out from last month’s Vet Record ( journal of the British Veterinary Association) has loitered on our kitchen table for weeks. In the article, writer Georgina Mills discusses whether and how the smell of a stressed person might affect the choices and emotions of dogs. It is already an accepted truth that the such a smell subconsciously affects people, so research was being carried out to see if that smell similarly affected dogs. And surprise surprise, it was found that it did. Dogs exposed to the smell of a stressed human, whether familiar to them or not, show a negative emotional state - they’re anxious, hyper-alert, unsure and so on.
I kept the article because so much of what we do on a daily basis here at House of Mutt is about keeping everything relaxed, and it really struck a chord to see scientific proof that what we think we know about stress really is ‘right’.
I’m not sure if it’s sensible practice or not, but heigh ho, here’s the opening paragraph of our In-house Guide to Dog Care…
“Hosting HoM’s multiple dogs from multiple households requires a calm mind and an easy relationship with your own leadership. The dogs are living in a new environment, alongside an ever-changing group of cohorts and they need to know that you are in charge and that they are safe in your hands. It’s slightly unfashionable to say it, but you absolutely are their pack leader; they will look to you for guidance, and the mood of the pack will always be strongly affected by your own mood…. Breathing deeply and relaxing is a good start point in all and any aspects of ‘pack’ care.”
One of the practical repurcussions of understanding how dogs react to stress (whether ‘good’ stress, excitement, or ‘bad’ stress, anxiety) is how we manage visitors. For a lover of dogs visiting a house ‘full’ of dogs is a really exciting thing - but we have to recognise that some of the dogs may not necessarily share that excitement. So we all make a point of keeping any dogs who may get whizzed up by excitement off any welcoming doorway committee duties and safely away in their own quiet space when new people arrive; and then quietly introduce them once the visitors have settled in. And we keep wild whoops of welcome to a minimum; the hellos are instead heartfelt but generally muted!
Similarly if an owner is coming by to collect a dog, we’ll generally keep the others away, even though the former may be expressly asking to meet the ‘team’. Simply because there will be high levels of excitement bouncing around and the last thing the other dogs need, is that! Heaven knows how daycare bods manage mass pick up and drop off times. Or maybe alot of them don’t, or at least not to levels we’d be comfortable with, I don’t know…
There are loads more Mutt-life examples, which probably aren’t interesting enough to expound in detail. So, for now, in summary: stressy people stress dogs - take a leaf out of our HoM Guidebook and breeeeeeeathe yourself calm when life gets tense - for the sake of your trusty sidekick who’s very air is telling him all he needs to know!
