Several studies report that olfactory cues play an important role in human life; humans are essentially able to recognize other family members and friends by their odors. Moreover, recent studies report that humans are also able to identify odors of non-conspecifics. The aim of this study was to determine whether dog owners are able to identify their dogs by smell and distinguish the odor of their own dogs from those of other dogs. A total of 53 dog owners (40 females and 13 males of different ages) volunteered to take part in this study. A number of the participants (17) owned 2 dogs; these owners took part in the study twice (i.e., working with only one dog at a time). Sterile gauze pads were used to collect odor samples from the dogs. Each pad was placed in its own sterile glass jar (750 ml) with a twist off lid until the experiment commenced. Participants were asked to identify their own dog´s odor from a line-up of 6 glass containers. This experiment demonstrated that dog owners are capable of identifying their dogs by smell on a significant level. Results of this study additionally suggested that male owners outperformed their female counterparts in the identification process. Moreover, dog owners whose dogs were housed outside had a higher success rate in identification than did participants who kept their dogs indoors with them. The dog owners found it easier to identify dogs that had been neutered, fed dry dog food and bathed less frequently. In general, younger dog owners tended to have more success when attempting to identify their dogs than did their older counterparts.

• MeSH
• čich fyziologie   MeSH
• diskriminace (psychologie) fyziologie   MeSH
• dítě MeSH
• domácí zvířata * MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladiství MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• předškolní dítě MeSH
• průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
• psi MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• vlastnictví statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• dítě MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladiství MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• předškolní dítě MeSH
• psi MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH