13 Revealing Secrets Your Dog Knows About You

 Dogs notice when you're sad, mad, or suspicious. They can even detect cancer. Turns out, dogs know more about your emotions and health than you ever suspected.

1 / 13

You’re a generous person (or not)

I make judgments about you based on your actions. University of Milan researchers had dogs watch some people sharing food with a beggar and other people telling the beggar to leave. Later, when the individuals beckoned the dogs at the same time, the pups overwhelmingly trotted over to the generous people.

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2 / 13

You don’t like someone

When you have negative feelings about a person, I can hear your breathing pattern change, observe your body stiffen slightly, and even smell the subtle pheremones your body emits. So if your in-laws suspect that I don’t like them, it may simply be because, um, you don’t really like them. Speaking of smells, this is why your dog’s breath smells so bad.

3 / 13

Where you’ve been

You humans are like sponges. You pick up volatile organic compounds from everything you walk by or touch. If you just visited, say, the supermarket, I will smell the butcher and fish counters, the food you bought, and maybe even the people you stood next to at checkout. I can smell something 100 million times more subtle than the faintest smell you can pick up.

4 / 13

You may have cancer

Some of us are being taught to detect different types of cancer by smelling certain chemicals that cancer cells can emit. In some studies, we were 88 percent accurate in detecting breast cancer, and 99 percent accurate in detecting lung cancer. Look out for these other silent signs that your dog is sick.

5 / 13

You’re coming home

We’ve learned your schedule, and we know roughly when to expect you back at the house each day. But even if you an get home at an odd hour, I can pick out the sound of your particular car coming down the street, and I am always listening for it.