Can Dogs Sense “Bad” People?
Dogs have an incredible sense of smell and can catch the slightest movement, triggering instinctual reactions. Canine olfaction is crucial to dogs locating food, protecting territory, reproduction and gathering historical information about their environment.
Dogs also have a great ability to detect facial expressions and overall body movements. People who have bad intentions move in a jerky fashion. They blink more and their vocal tones are different than normal. Couple these visuals with the human scent of fear or insecurity, and your dog senses danger.
Your dog is always learning from your behavior, too. They will associate your reaction to specific stimuli, such as you not being comfortable when near a certain neighbor or feeling threatened when someone yells at you. As you are part of your dog’s pack, they naturally want to protect their social group. Your feelings of fear or threat become theirs and then they become reactive when confronted with that threat.
Scientific Studies
There have been many scientific studies about canine olfaction and how it works. These studies conclude that dogs have a unique ability to detect minute scent from great distances. Their abilities to locate and understand smells that are undetectable to humans have made dogs irreplaceable partners for search and rescue, assistance dogs, drug detection, cancer detection and the ability to respond prior to seizures or blood sugar abnormalities.
Not only can a dog’s sense of smell detect odors that most instruments cannot detect, but also, they can detect the intentions of other people, be they dangerous people, a good person or someone who is frightened.
Pet Body Language Signals
Your pet is constantly communicating to you via body language. The way they hold their bodies, how their tails wag, or don’t, their amount of eye contact, energy levels, facial expressions and overall movement.
Over time, you learn the meanings of your dog’s body language. As you do so, your dog is also learning yours. They are learning about how you react to specific situations and those around you. Your dog’s instincts recognize whether you are nervous, afraid, threatened, have anxiety, cautious, or otherwise uncomfortable.
Your dog will begin to react to the same situations that are bothersome to you. For example, you may be cautious when someone knocks on your door. Your dog will begin barking when this occurs. If you see a cat walking around a neighbor’s house as you are walking your dog, your dog will strain at the leash to run after it. Or you hear loud noises and are fearful. This creates fear in your dog as well.
Safety Tips for When Your Dog Senses a Bad Person
Unless you are certain that the person you dog doesn’t trust is actually safe, you may want to remain a distance from them. Your dog can smell someone with bad intentions, whereas you are less likely to recognize the signs. Human behavior is very complicated, and words don’t always coincide with intentions. What may seem like a sixth sense, your dog knows through smell, body language and vocal tones.
When approaching someone your dog doesn’t trust, you should take precautions to ensure that there are no confrontations. These include:
- Remaining calm in every way possible. Your emotions can give away your feelings and your dog senses your emotions. Breathe deeply and slowly, focusing on your dog.
- Before your dog can lunge or bite, redirect your dog by turning in the opposite direction and walking quickly.
- Never encourage aggressive behavior even if you might believe it is warranted. Your dog must back down if you demand they do so.
How to Improve a Dog’s Ability to Sense Bad People
There are specific training exercises that improve a dog’s ability to sense people with bad intentions. These should not be used with your pet dog, however. Only dogs that are being trained to become guard dogs or for sport dog exhibitions should receive this type of training. Most pet parents have no means of controlling a dog who becomes highly reactive to certain things in their environment.
Most dogs have a natural sense of danger. There’s no need to train them to become even more reative.
Training Exercises For Enhancing a Dog’s Instincts and Alertness
There are some great ways to enhance your dog’s confidence and enhance their instincts in the proper direction. You should always begin with obedience training, teaching the basics such as come, sit, stay, down and heel. These exercises create focus and trust on you, helping your dog learn how to react in a controlled manner when they sense bad people.
Socialization is also very important, so your dog learns that not all situations are sketchy. Not all human behavior is bad behavior. There are many factors to weigh prior to that determination and experience with humans other than yourself and pets other than those in your home help with these determinations.
Dogs who are high energy may be more reactive to specific smells, movement and nervous behaviors. You can help them relax and redirect this energy by doing nose work games, puzzle toys or find it games. These games are stimulating and rewarding.
When you have full control over your dog’s behavior, you can begin teaching them to alert you when someone enters your property or knocks on the door. Some dogs are great at helping those with hearing disabilities by alerting them when the phone rings, or something drops. Turning their instincts into a positive game helps your dog relax and be more specific in their reactions to bad people.
Building Trust and Bonding with a Dog to Strengthen Their Senses
The best means of creating trust and improving the bond with your dog is through positive reinforcement training. Rewarding appropriate behavior and redirecting your dog away from inappropriate behavior helps your dog understand what you expect.
Through consistency, your dog will develop trust in you and your responses to environmental changes. Your dog will rely on you to signal whether, or not, they should react to the presence of someone who may not be trustworthy.
As you work together, you will gain trust in your dog’s instincts and senses. If a normally relaxed and reliable dog suddenly senses bad people, you should remove yourselves from proximity as fast as possible. You may not recognize the person’s intentions, but your dog certainly does.