Curious Gal Asks Online Community If Regular Pet Dogs Can Detect Drugs Like Police Dogs Do
K-9 units are exceptionally skilled at detecting drugs and other illegal items. But what about regular dogs?
The quick answer is yes; any dog can smell drugs. We all appreciate how incredible dogs' sense of smell is, and seeing them use their powerful noses is always a delightful experience.
If you have a pet dog, then you're likely familiar with the signs that indicate their keen interest in a particular scent. First, your dog starts tuning out everything else, including your calls, and dashes off in a seemingly random direction.
With their nose either to the ground or in the air, they eagerly sniff around, chasing after a tempting treat, another dog's scent, or anything intriguing that catches their attention. Despite our pleas to "stop" or "come back," they are fully focused on satisfying their curiosity, following their nose until they've thoroughly investigated whatever scent has captivated them.
In the case of trained sniffer dogs used in law enforcement, such as police or customs dogs, they exhibit specific behavior upon detecting the target scent, such as sitting next to the source. In today's post, we'll discover how some dogs react when they smell drugs.
People who are admittedly drug users themselves responded to this question:
Do dogs have a sense when it comes to drug use? I'm not referring to drug-sniffing or police dogs. I am asking about domestic pets. My dog reacts when there are drugs around.
I actually hide in my bathroom when I use due to how guilty I feel doing drugs around my dog. She legitimately follows me, stares at me, moans, and cries. Does anyone else with a pet experience this?
See a drug user's advice at the end.
In my opinion, they don’t know what it is or what it does, but they notice cues.
Both my dogs passed away this past year; only two years ago, I started my meth use. When I say dogs pick up on cues, I mean whenever I put my shoes on, they get excited because they think they’re going for a walk; at least, that’s how mine did.
They knew that nine times out of ten, when I put my shoes on and they hadn't been out in a little while, they figured they were about to go for a walk. I think my dogs may have noticed a change in my behavior when I grabbed a certain device or when someone would come over.
It got to the point that my last one would go into my closet and hide whenever I had someone over. I hate myself for it; they were older, but I felt the girl had more life in her, and I stripped her of that.
If I weren’t a coward, I would go visit them, or at least hope that’s what would happen. You’d think I would quit, but why?
So I can gain clarity and fine-tune that reality. Don’t let your dogs be around it at any time.
If there is a specific room where you do it, never let them in that room. Never.
Pet dogs can detect drugs. They can also sense their owner is stoned.
Oh my God, my dog will do the same. She literally looks at me like she’s scared or like she can tell something is wrong with me.
It makes me so f*cking full of guilt that I hide too. Sometimes she won’t even come near me, even if I’m being loving :( It’s so crazy how they have that sense.
A cat would even go as far as to snatch it from purses.
I don't have a dog, but my cats absolutely know, and my friend has a cat that will literally get into your purse and pull it out. One of mine was in serious pain waiting for surgery (he is perfect now) and would follow its passing from person to person; we assumed trying to get a contact buzz.
I would never advocate getting an animal high on narcotics, so no one ever purposely shared, but I think it helped ease the pain, so we also never shut him out. Now that he is healthy again, he doesn't act the way he did.
Animals are smart in ways we are not.
A user believes that dogs can sense the guilt.
Yep. But I think it's more about us projecting our guilt onto them.
It seems likely that this has a lot to do with it. Our dogs can't really know what it is we're doing exactly, but if you have a close relationship with your pupper (which it sounds like you do), they'll be so tuned in to us that they pick up on any slight changes in our moods, i.e., our own guilt.
This doggo isn't a fan of the smell.
My dog would hide under the bed when he’d see me start prepping my workstation, only coming out if I lay on the bed.
Dogs are smarter than most people give them credit for.
Others would do it in the bathroom just so they won't see their dog's reaction.
I hope other people answer this because I'm curious to see what they say. My dogs do the same thing, and I do the same thing: go to the bathroom and shut the door because I feel so guilty. LOL
Naturally, you cannot expect the pet dog to have the same reaction as police dogs because the latter are trained to react in a certain manner.
You can see a pattern based on people's responses, though. Firstly, they can indeed smell and detect drugs.
Secondly, they can detect that something's wrong with their drug-using owner.
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