Can Dogs Tell a Baby's Gender?

Expecting a baby can be a very exciting time! Will they have her nose? Will they have his hair? What color eyes will the little guy or gal have? These are all questions that future parents ask as they get closer and closer to their due date, but what about gender? 

Gender seems to be a huge deal to parents-to-be. With gender reveal parties and ways to predict baby's gender popping up all over the internet, parents are definitely obsessed. You could wait for your gender reveal ultrasound from your doctor's office, or pay big bucks to a photo studio that does fetal photos, or maybe you could just consult your dog.

Say what? That's right, your dog. There have been a lot of thoughts in online forums that say that dogs understand a baby's gender before parents do - but is that possible?

Unsurprisingly, there isn't much research on this topic. So, you're left to guess a little bit. However, here are a few signs you might notice if your dog senses that you’re pregnant. The main thing dogs use to determine if you are pregnant is their sense of smell. According to researchers, you smell different to a dog when you are pregnant. 

So, if you smell different to them, your dog might become very aware and alert of everything you’re doing. Some dogs even go as far as guarding their owners closely. If someone your dog doesn’t trust gets too close, they might even start growling or barking at the person. Just stay calm, and tell your pooch “no” if the person means no harm.

Sometimes dog owners notice other signs that they think indicate that their dog knows that their owner is expecting a baby. You might notice your dog watching you more closely. They might be trying to figure out what is new about you! They also might become more cuddly and loving. Some dog owners have even sworn that their pooch pays very close attention to their owner’s stomach once they start having a small baby bump. It really depends on your dog and their personality, though.

The history of baby genders and the quest to find out if your baby is a girl or a boy is very deeply rooted in history. How many times have you heard stories about royalty in history doing anything and everything to have male children? People died over this issue! They were concerned about having heirs to carry on their family name and the royal line.

Wanting a boy or a girl specifically is still a big deal to many parents-to-be, even today! With a quick google search, you'll notice the millions of different ways people try to predict their baby's gender early. There are many old wives' tales about this, as well. 

Some of these include how you're carrying your baby, if you blush when people mention "boy" or "girl," or if your baby was conceived on a certain day. All kinds of things. Many parents wait for the 20-week ultrasound at the doctor where the tech can usually tell you the gender of your bouncing baby with more certainty.

As for theories behind if dogs can determine a gender of a baby, there is a lot of speculation in online forums, but not much that actually backs up if a dog knows a baby's gender. There is a little more evidence that dogs can determine if you're pregnant or not. However, gender is still a murky topic.

So, what do scientists say about dogs and gender prediction in fetuses? Not much. We do know that dogs might be able to tell their human’s gender once they are born and talking. There was an experiment done where a dog was placed in front of a man, a woman, and a speaker.

Researchers would play a male or female voice over the speaker and see which way the dog looked. Many dogs did actually look at the person of the correct gender. Interestingly, researchers did note that dogs that lived in homes with multiple people were more likely to match the male or female voice that was played over the speaker correctly to the man and woman standing in front of them. 

So, the potential to identify gender is there, maybe just not as early as when a baby is in the womb, but that is up to interpretation because of the lack of research.

So, you'd like you'd like to train your pooch to predict baby genders, eh? It can be agonizing to wait for that 20-week ultrasound, so it's understandable. Unfortunately, there really isn't a way to train your dog to do this, at least as of now. In all honesty, you're probably better off waiting for the ultrasound.

So, can dogs predict the gender of your growing fetus? Who knows! Until someone does more research on the matter, we're left with the old wives' tales methods - and ultrasounds.