Dogs are sensitive to the visual and auditory signals that indicate the emotional state of other dogs nearby.

Dogs exposed to an unchanging emotional odor become habituated and no longer pay attention to it.

If the new scent changes the dog’s behavior in the expected way, he is recognizing its emotional content.

Dogs are highly social animals, responding to various communication signals from humans and other dogs. Perhaps the most important signals are those that communicate the emotional state of the individuals around them. It is well-established that dogs respond to visually observable changes in the body posture of other dogs—specific tail wags, flattening ears, among other behaviors—as well as their vocal signals (growls, whimpers). But beyond sight and sound are there other channels of emotional information available to dogs?

An acquaintance contacted me because she was baffled by a recent event. Once every few weeks, she gets together with a friend of hers who owns a littermate of her Shetland Sheepdog, Rolf, so the two dogs can play together, and the two women can have coffee and have a friendly chat. According to her, “When Sharon brought Rufus [her dog] into my living room yesterday, his tail drooped, his ears went down, and he actually whimpered and looked uncomfortable. He is normally very friendly and upbeat, and he’d been to my house many times. It wasn’t as though Rolf was doing anything unpleasant or threatening since he was out in the backyard at that moment. I really can’t figure out what made him so uncomfortable.”

I pressed her for a bit more information, and she told me that an hour or so before Rufus arrived, she had........

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