Dogs trained to smell out PTSD flashbacks

Dogs might be even more intelligent than we first thought; researchers show that our furry friends might be able to assist us with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

The study shows that trained dogs can potentially sniff out impending PTSD flashbacks by getting subtle changes in human breath.

Dogs can smell stress through human breath

Laura Kiiroja, the lead author of the study and a researcher at Dalhousie University, explains, “PTSD service dogs are already trained to assist people during episodes of distress.

“However, dogs are currently trained to respond to behavioural and physical cues. Our study showed that at least some dogs can also detect these episodes via breath.”

The study focused on the ability of dogs to detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted through human breath, particularly those associated with stress and trauma.

Training two dogs to assess dogs’ abilities

By training two dogs, Ivy and Callie, researchers aimed to assess whether these dogs could differentiate between breath samples from individuals experiencing stress and those in a calmer state.

Participants in the study who had experienced traumatic events were asked to recall their traumas while wearing different facemasks. One mask provided a control sample, while another captured breath during traumatic recollection.

Ivy and Callie underwent strict training to identify the target odour from pieces of these facemasks.

The results showed that Ivy and Callie could feel stressed breath samples, achieving up to 90% accuracy in distinguishing between stressed and non-stressed states.

Implications of the study

“With 40 sample sets, ours is a proof-of-concept study that needs to be validated by studies with larger sample sizes,” Kiiroja cautioned. “Validation studies should collect samples from a higher number of stressful events to confirm dogs’ ability to reliably detect stress VOCs in the breath of one human across different contexts.” Although further research is still needed to confirm these findings

This opens new avenues for assistance dog training, particularly in aiding individuals with PTSD. By detecting early signs of distress, these specially trained dogs could potentially intervene before a full flashback occurs.