Curious Gal Asks Online Community If Regular Pet Dogs Can Detect Drugs Like Police Dogs Do

Dog owners share how their own dogs react at the smell of drugs.

May

• Published in Interesting
• April 11, 2024

K-9 units are so good at their job of 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 already quite familiar with the signs that signal 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 like the police or customs, they exhibit a 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 legit 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 have passed this past year, only 2 years ago I started my meth use. When I say dogs pick up on cues, I mean whenever you put your shoes on they get excited cuz they think they’re going for a walk, at least that’s how mine did.

They knew that 9 times out of 10 when I put my shoes on, and they havent been out in a lil bit, then they figure they are about to go for a walk. I think my dogs may have seen a change in behavior from me when I grabbed a certain device, or when someone would come over.

It got to point that my last one would go in 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 wasn’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 the clarity and fine tune that reality. Don’t let your dogs be around it at any time.

If there is a specific room you do it in, 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 :( so crazy how they have that sense.

A cat would even go as far as 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 a surgery (he is perfect now) and would follow it's passing from person to person, we assumed trying to get a contact buzz.

I would never advocate to getting an animal ripped 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 its more about us projecting our guilt onto them.

It seems likely that 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 yr pupper (which it sounds like you do) theyll be so tuned in to us that they pick up on any slight changes in our moods. ie our own guilt.

This doggo isn't a fan of the smell.

My dog would hide under the bed when he’d me start prepping my workstation. Only coming out if I layer on 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.

May