Chiang Mai, July 5, 2025 — DocSource | Research Study
Dogs don’t just smell their world — they feel it through scent. A recent review by Berg, Mappes & Kujala (2023) explores how canine olfaction connects deeply to cognition, emotion, and even the dog-human bond. Here’s what the latest research reveals about the true power of your dog’s nose.
The canine nose is more than a sensory organ — it’s a gateway to emotional and cognitive processing. In their comprehensive review published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Berg, Mappes, and Kujala (2023) outline the neural basis of canine olfaction and its influence on cognition, mood, and social interaction.
The authors synthesize findings across behavioural science, neuroscience, and ethology, showing how olfactory input shapes decision-making, memory, emotional regulation, and attachment behaviour in dogs. From scent-based memory tasks to odour-triggered stress reduction, the nose plays a central role in shaping canine experience.
Importantly, the study also highlights how olfaction strengthens the dog-human bond — with familiar human scents providing a sense of security and emotional grounding. It calls for further development of non-invasive measurement tools (e.g. EEG, fMRI, sniff-mapping) to deepen our understanding of how dogs truly perceive the world through their nose.
For trainers, veterinarians, and researchers, this review offers a roadmap to integrating scent-based approaches into behavioural support, emotional calibration, and communication frameworks — an essential direction for modern dog behaviour science.
Source: Berg, P., Mappes, T., & Kujala, M. V. (2023). Olfaction in the canine cognitive and emotional processes: From behavioral and neural viewpoints to measurement possibilities. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 157. DOI:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105556
