# Do Dogs Sense Family?



## Wolfiesmom (Apr 10, 2010)

My sister has 2 dogs, not GSD's. She has a Weimaraner and a Jack Russell Terrier. My sister lives far away from me, so I have never met these dogs, since she is the one that comes home to visit. Last week, my sister had a baby. I went to visit her and the baby in the hospital, and then went to her house to spend the night. When I walked in, both dogs were all over me, kissing me and wagging their tails. When I sat in the kitchen, the Weimaraner came over, put his head under my arm, and nudged my arm over so I had my arm draped around his shoulder. He sat there with me until I got up. The Jack Russell jumped up in my lap and put her head on my face looking for kisses. She sat in my lap for a long time as well. My brother in law said that they don't usually act like this with strangers, and they must sense that I am related to my sister in some way. Maybe we have the same scent. Wolfie is like this with family as well. Do you think that dogs can sense family,e ven if they never met them before?


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## Andaka (Jun 29, 2003)

I beleive that people (and animals) who are related smell similarly to each other. It makes identification of the pack easier.


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## brembo (Jun 30, 2009)

Yeah for sure they know family. You and your sister share a good number of chromosomes and likely look similar in ways dogs will pick up on. Scent is likely the biggie here, and since you two are similar on a chemical level to a dog's wicked sensitive nose you are undeniably family.


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## Tbarrios333 (May 31, 2009)

I think dogs recognize family too. Denali will happily greet strangers that come in the house, but she will get bored of them after a while and ignore them. She will ask family for leggings and to play ball though.


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## Mom2Shaman (Jun 17, 2011)

Same thing here. Even my girl that did not like people seemed to be welcoming and considerate to my parents and my husband's father. I think they know by scent and also the different way in which family is welcomed into a home than even good friends. Interestingly, my pup who has a wicked-plus nose hadn't seen my parents in about a month. Last time, he was great with both my parents. This time, he responded to my dad like a stranger. We were confused about this. The following day, my father was diagnosed with Stage IV metastasized lung cancer. I am wondering if his scent has changed and the pup didn't recognize him as family any longer. I think it is mostly scent based, you are correct.


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## DharmasMom (Jul 4, 2010)

Mom2Shaman said:


> Same thing here. Even my girl that did not like people seemed to be welcoming and considerate to my parents and my husband's father. I think they know by scent and also the different way in which family is welcomed into a home than even good friends. Interestingly, my pup who has a wicked-plus nose hadn't seen my parents in about a month. Last time, he was great with both my parents. This time, he responded to my dad like a stranger. We were confused about this. The following day, my father was diagnosed with Stage IV metastasized lung cancer. I am wondering if his scent has changed and the pup didn't recognize him as family any longer. I think it is mostly scent based, you are correct.



Your pup probably smelled the tumor. There are many dogs that can smell cancer and your dog is probably one of them. I am sorry to hear about your dad. I wish nothing but the best for him!


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

Dogs can smell so many things we can't, including human cancers, which is amazing.

People in the same family tend to smell similarly to a dog, so it's not surprising that they would recognize family members just from that. There may also be certain similar mannerisms that are completely unconscious and unrecognizable to us, but that the dog can pick up on.


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## BlackPuppy (Mar 29, 2007)

I think they do sense family, but I think they also sense "dog people".


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## Greydusk (Mar 26, 2010)

Well they say human mothers can find their baby in a room full of other babies by smell alone, so with dog's keen sense of smell I'm sure they can distinguish family members. 

Interesting study: Women were given a selection of sweat from men to smell (on of the samples was from her brother). She was then ask to rate how "alluring" she thought the men were. The brother was on the bottom of the list every time. We have more senses than we're aware of.


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## sportsman1539 (Jan 22, 2011)

I kinda wondered the same thing. About a week ago, i took Sammie into Petsmart. Some of the time when people approach her, she either barks or doesnt really care for much petting. In other words, there isnt much excitement for new people. I probably had 4-5 people already come up to me and Sammie did one of the two. Well I ran into my sister(who sammie see's maybe once a month) while I was in there and when Sammie saw her, she pinned her ears back and jumped on my sister wagging her tail and licked her to death. Keep in mind, she sees alot of my friends probably more than my sister and usually Sammie barks at them everytime she initially see's them.


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## Uniballer (Mar 12, 2002)

Several of my dogs have tried to greet my father as though he was me, and didn't figure it out until he acted "wrong". We are about the same size, general body type, similar movement patterns, and our voices sound very similar. Maybe scent too.


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## GSDolch (May 15, 2006)

Oh most certainly I believe it.

My GSD has been living with my father due to weight limits in our apt. I had Aiden in 08 and Piper in 09. While she is a big love bug in general, she acts so different with family. She seemed to get that they were my "pups" and needless to say when Piper was 6wks old I was sitting on the ground with her and Bailey being as gentle as she could be. It was wonderful.

I do think that they can sense it and perhaps its a smell or attitude..look possible? Some family members look alot alike.


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## marshies (May 18, 2011)

I firmly believe animals can identify kin by scent. In the wild, it would go a long way to ensuring your genes make it along the gene pool since inbreeding would likely lead to less healthy offspring.

Mice use the smell of urine to identify family members. Apparently, they can detect other mice that are genetically similar to them and avoid breeding with them by sniffing urine.


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## trudy (Aug 25, 2008)

They definitely can and we move the same, sound the same, gesture the same, and probably have a million things the same. I know my kids relate to their dogs exactly as I relate to mine so even that is the same. So dogs know its family


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## fuzzybunny (Apr 29, 2011)

I was at the dog park with Jazz when we ran into another Shiloh Shepherd. Upon talking with the owners we discovered that our dogs were half brothers. They had little interest in one another though. Jazz gave him a couple of licks on the mouth as he does with most dogs and off they went in opposite directions. They looked identical btw. It was pretty cool running into them.


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## SitUbuSit (Aug 1, 2011)

Mom2Shaman said:


> The following day, my father was diagnosed with Stage IV metastasized lung cancer. I am wondering if his scent has changed and the pup didn't recognize him as family any longer. I think it is mostly scent based, you are correct.


I am so sorry to hear about your dad. You are absolutely right, cancer does change the way you smell to dogs. A 2006 study found that dogs could detect lung and breast cancer with up to 97 percent accuracy. They detected it from breath samples of patients. 
Can Dogs Smell Cancer?


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## mssandslinger (Sep 21, 2010)

totally do! my parents dogs who i hardly see will never bark at me, instead they run up and act happy to see me. but they see the same non family members everyday and bark at them at my parents work haha


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