Can Dogs Sense a Good Person?

Dogs have some truly amazing abilities. They are intuitive animals with special skills that help them navigate the world around them. You might notice that your dog acts differently depending on your mood. When your body language or tone of voice changes, you might notice that your dog's attitude changes, too.

The best thing about dogs is that they are such great friends. They celebrate with us when they are happy and hey can provide comfort and security to people in need. If dogs can sense when humans are sad, what else can they sense?

Can dogs tell when someone is a threat? Can they sense a good person? 

Dogs can sense when someone is a bad or good person. Your dog may not know the moral decisions a person has made, but he can pick up on signs of nervousness, fear, anger, and danger. Dogs notice specific things about humans that even other humans are not aware of. When an angry person looks away a lot during a conversation, has tensed muscles, or starts sweating, dogs can tell. They use their keen sense of smell and great ability to read body language in order to help them know how to react to people. 

Many species have difficulty in recognizing the facial expressions of different species. However, dogs are able to read facial expressions of humans quite well. Dogs study each detail of our faces in order to predict our actions. They can even see only a person's eyes and tell whether he or she is a threatening or non-threatening person.

Dogs respond to different moods according to their breed and personality type. When someone is threatening, dogs may bark, jump up, or show their teeth. You'll notice that they furrow their brow and keep a close eye on the potential threat. 

When a dog is sensing a good person, his face will be more relaxed. His mouth will be open and his tongue may be out. He will have a calm posture and his tail will probably wag. Safe dogs are happy dogs! When someone is truly a good person with good intentions, a dog will warm up to them quickly. The dog may stand close to the nice person or follow them around. 

Using their strong skills in reading humans, dogs are able to sense a good person when they see one. 

Wolves are the first animals that humans ever domesticated. The dogs we know and love today are the descendants of their wolf ancestors. Over 15,000 years ago, humans and wolves roamed the lands separately. Over time, wolves and humans got closer and closer. They learned that they could help each other. The dogs helped the humans hunt while the humans provided shelter and gave them their leftover food scraps. 

This mutually beneficial arrangement turned into a true friendship once wolves and humans began getting to know each other better. Each generation of new humans and wolves lead to even more evolution for dogs. Wolves began looking more and more like dogs, and their personalities began to change. 

The dogs that were better at accommodating to the needs of their humans were more likely to be bred. These personality traits remained and grew stronger as dogs got better and better at understanding and predicting humans. They retained their powerful sense of smell from their wolf ancestors and they use it to help sense good people. 

Humans preferred the dogs that responded in a positive way to their behavior. Dogs learned about nonverbal communication and began noticing changes in tone of voice. Dogs today are some of the best sources of peace and happiness. 

Many people wonder if dogs have a sixth sense. They are so good at understanding the needs of humans. They sometimes understand these needs before the humans are even aware of them! 

Dogs use their powerful sense of smell to help them make inferences about the climate of the current situation. Dogs have a lot more smell detectors than humans do. Dogs have around 600 million olfactory receptors while humans have less than 10 million. This is a huge difference, and it explains a lot about all of the ways dogs gather information. 

Dogs can even smell the rise and fall of certain brain chemicals in humans. For example, they can tell when someone is producing more oxytocin than usual. Oxytocin is released when we feel good. It creates feelings of love and happiness. Dogs know when someone is feeling this way, and they tend to get in a good mood as well. 

Perhaps most impressive (even more impressive than 600 million smell detectors) is the way dogs are able to connect how we look to who we are. When a person has open body language and a smile on their face, your dog is more likely to trust and like him. 

There are countless benefits to training dogs. While some dogs are more intelligent than others, all dogs benefit from learning new things. It helps them build new connections in their brains. It also stretches them intellectually which will help them gain more knowledge about their community. 

Dogs can be trained at any age. They tend to learn quickly at young ages, but they can learn new things all throughout their lives. The best way to train dogs is by rewarding them for their positive behavior. 

Dogs know they have done something good if they feel good. Feeling happy is a reward for dogs. It is common to give your dog a treat when he performs a behavior that you encourage. You can also provide positive praise in a happy voice with a smile on your face. This will show your dog that you are pleased or impressed with his abilities. 

Feeling good is a great reward for being good. You don't always have to give your dog treats for tricks. In fact, it may not be a good idea to give treats every time he does a task asked of him. This could result in future disobedience. If your dog is not hungry at the time he needs to do something, he may not listen to you. So be sure to sprinkle in other feel-good activities such as a walk or a game of fetch. 

Training your dog to sense good people begins with introducing him to new people. When your dog is able to get to know a wide variety faces and social cues he is more likely to understand them in the future. You can help this process by showing your dog happy faces and speaking in a positive tone while you do so. This will help your dog make connections to different types of happy cues.