How dogs distinguish bad people

Almost every dog owner is ready to tell the story of how his pooch, always so friendly or at least simply loyal to strangers, without any apparent reason suddenly begins to throw himself at people. “Victims” of sudden canine aggression can be complete strangers to passersby, as well as someone who comes to the house of the owners. So why does a dog react this way to certain people?

How does a dog sense the “bad guy”?

Even a perfectly good dog can react aggressively.

Dogs can sense when their owner’s blood sugar level is changing, when they’re about to have an epileptic seizure or when they have a tumor. But here’s “feeling” a good person or a bad one!… Many dog owners are sure that their pets are very good at this ability as well, although skeptics don’t believe them and just brush them off.

At the same time, even a perfectly normal-looking person can cause such a violent reaction in the dog – it may bark, growl, bark, or throw, although there seems to be no reason for it. The person may behave absolutely calmly, not shouting, not waving his hands, and not teasing the animal, moreover – may not even look in the direction of the animal and its owner. And the dog itself may not be aggressive by nature and more than well-mannered and trained. Obviously, something that a person can neither explain nor understand makes him behave this way.

What makes an animal react this way

Different emotions in the same person “make” him/her smell differently

That dogs recognize an unfriendly or aggressive person, even if they don’t clearly show negative emotions, is unequivocal. But how this happens, scientists have not yet found out exactly, establishing as many as three hypotheses of the origin of this process. According to the first of them, dogs, thanks to their excellent sense of smell, capture pheromones from humans. It turns out that the same person smells differently when experiencing different emotions.

Humans are not able to sense such smells, but dogs can. For example, the smell of fear (adrenaline) coming from a human causes a dog to lunge at him. An aggressive attitude also gives its chemical reaction and corresponding smell, and all the animal has to do is react. In addition, dogs are excellent “non-verbalists,” they are great at reading a person’s facial expression, gait, and gestures.

What the owner’s reaction should be

The dog is not at fault here, so there is nothing to punish it.

A weaker hypothesis is that dogs that feel the behavior and state of their masters more subtly than other dogs begin to behave in a “mirror” way. But then there is no explanation for the cases in which a dog detects an outgoing threat, while the master does not even realize it. And the third hypothesis concerns the instincts and intuition the dog has by nature, as well as bioenergetics – that is, receiving a negative charge of energy from evil or aggressive person, the dog gives its response: barking, growling, barking.

What is the owner to do when the dog reacts this way to a passerby? By no means punish or scold, but make the leash shorter and command: “Near!”. And if the dog continues to show excitement, you should lead him away.