A leading dog behaviourist has revealed dogs can tell when you’re having an affair - spelling bad news for pet owners who are unfaithful to their partner. 3.2million people acquired a pet in 2020, with more than 12 million dogs now in homes across the UK and IllicitEncounters.com, the dating site for marital affairs, estimates more than 30% of its 1m strong membership owns a dog.
In a recent poll of over 2,000 members, 60% revealed dog walks had replaced more traditional affair rendezvous as daters cut back on costs. A further 41% confessed to meeting their lovers in their own home, instead of a hotel to save money.
The change in dating behaviour means an increased exposure to more personal aspects of daters lives, including their dogs - and canine owners are now fearful of their pooch sniffing out their extra marital antics. The trend has prompted IllicitEncounters.com to partner with top dog behaviour expert, Anna Webb, to dig into the truth on dogs' extraordinary ability to sniff out cheating.
According to Anna, though dogs don’t mentally understand the concept of cheating, they use their senses to sniff out where you’ve been, who you’ve met, what you’ve done, all from minute scent particles deposited on your clothing.
Your furry friend can also ‘read’ you through minute facial expressions, eye contact, and body postures. Anna, who studied at the College of Integrated Veterinary Therapies and is host of the award-nominated podcast A DOG’S LIFE, said: “Your dog certainly knows where you have been. Their sense of smell is their superpower.
"When a new scent is sniffed, they will remember it, especially when it's correlated with the owner's mood. Does this scent mean my human is happy, sad, stressed out or anxious? Dogs have 220 million scent receptors in their noses compared to our meagre five million. So, they quite literally see with their noses. But added to that, dogs have a dedicated area in their brains where they store every scent they’ve encountered. It’s like a huge scent memory bank.
"Although certain breeds are known for the ability to engage their noses – Labradors, Retrievers, Spaniels are hunting dogs designed to sniff for a purpose. Some dogs are shrinking violets and internalise change and it brews deep anxiety, but they just get on with life. Others, like the Frenchies and Bull terriers might display their annoyance at having been left out of the party by shredding your slippers.
"But make no mistake that all dogs have the power to be detectives on your antics.”
If your partner can read your dog or notice unusual traits as clues for when you’re out or walking through the door, it could give the game away.Jess, from Hertfordshire, who’s been having an affair through IllicitEncounters.com for the past three months, has become so paranoid about her dogs behaviour when she walks through the door she’s desperate to end things.
She said: “I have a cocker spaniel who’s attached to my hip for pretty much the entire day when I’m at home. But since I’ve started seeing my new lover – who he’s never met - his behaviour has changed and I’m petrified my husband's going to notice.
"My dog used to greet me at the door but now he gives me one look and runs off. He’s become submissive around me. He’s started pining my husband for attention over me. He even barked at me one time I walked through the door."
Anna said: “It’s interesting as it highlights the nose power of a gundog – arguably the most ‘nosey’ of breeds. The fact that Jess is the main carer is significant as a change in routine will unsettle a dog. This combined with the ‘scent’ of the new person imprinted on her clothes etc, will be signalling to the Cocker that this scent is the reason for the change in the dog’s routine.
"The fact the Cocker is ducking from attention is a sign that he is feeling a bit disgruntled, and conveying this emotion through body language, and avoidance.
"Plus, there’s the pack element to consider, dogs are social pack animals and stick together. So, it’s interesting that the Cocker is leaning towards the husband for attention, it’s a natural behaviour for dogs to be helpers, to be loyal, to make us happy and have fun to ease situations.
"He could be over-compensating for his once main carer’s absence in the day, which has the common denominator of the new signatory scent – only available to the dog.”
