You know, I've been thinking about it, and I figured out that our dogs may be able to sniff out our hormones. Every feeling we have is produced by the brain, right? It tells the body to pump a bit of, say, 'Happy essence' or 'Angry essence', (if to name it that
) into our bloodstream. And then our body reacts to it, helping us hendle the situation better. Take Adrenaline (Epinephrine) for example. When we get nervous, or scared, our brain senses that we should better be alert to whatever problem we have to face, so it gives us a shot of a sustance that "rapidly prepares the body for action in emergency situations. The hormone boosts the supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles, while suppressing other non-emergency bodily processes (digestion in particular).
It increases heart rate and stroke volume, dilates the pupils, and constricts arterioles in the skin and gastrointestinal tract while dilating arterioles in skeletal muscles. It elevates the blood sugar level by increasing catabolism of glycogen to glucose in the liver, and at the same time begins the breakdown of lipids in fat cells. Like some other stress hormones, epinephrine has a suppressive effect on the immune system." (Thank you, Wiki! I owe you one! '-^)
I imagine that, as a pack, wolves should work as one to achieve their goals, such as hunting, protecting each other, and most importantly, themselves. Seeing as they don't talk, they must have a way to communicate, mustn't they? I believe that maybe, just maybe, they can sniff out each other's anger, or playfulness, or fear or whatever, apart from their clever body positions. After all, wolves (And dogs, by the way) can smell up to a MILLION times better than we can. Yup, that's right, 1 Mill. Isn't it amazing? Anyway, back to the point. This stuff, well, it's all over us. If we're happy, for example, our whole system is flooded with HAPPY substance, which must have
some smell. Appart from our body language, which we know our dogs can understand, we know that we are virtually "glowing" with a little cloud of our mood floating around us, invisible, waiting for something to detect it. Another thing we lnow is that even if
we can't sense something, it doesn't mean that others can't, since we have limitted senses. We also know that our dogs have a spectacular sense of smell. And finally, we know (or at least I do, and for sure) that our dogs react to our mood. I can't count the times in which I was sad, and Kesem curled up next to me; In which I was angry, and she stayed really quiet; Or in which I was very, very glad about something, and she came over bounding with a ball in her mouth. Wierd, huh?
I'm not at all sure about this theory, though I do believe it could be true. It's only based on what I know so far, and since I've never studied this kind of thing deeply, I can't be sure. Please feel free to correct me- I'll be glad if you do!
Make this my formal come-back to the DTA! :doghappy:
*EDIT:
I just wanted to add, one of the reasons I thought up all this is that I don't believe in spiritualism and that kind of stuff, and I'm constantly looking for scientific explanations to unexplanable things I stumble around. I have no problem if you do believe in it, though! Everyone has the right to believe in whatever they wish to. Gee, if we all looked at it like that, there would be so many less wars in the world, wouldn't there? *