Can dogs sense bad people / dangerous people?

[Cottonmouth]

My German Shepherd freaks out and trys to run from kids cause I'm nervous of her around them cause she plays rough.

When I get nervous around adults though she gets very protective and pulls out her teeth. Oh and she has a bad habit of attacking any dog that growls, barks, just looks like it could be aggressive. She mauled my neighbors Lab/pit mix because she chased after her while playing and growled.

[Snow White]

My German Shepherd freaks out and trys to run from kids cause I'm nervous of her around them cause she plays rough.

When I get nervous around adults though she gets very protective and pulls out her teeth. Oh and she has a bad habit of attacking any dog that growls, barks, just looks like it could be aggressive. She mauled my neighbors Lab/pit mix because she chased after her while playing and growled.

Mine is fine around kids, other dogs and people. Just this one lady freaked her out.

[Bearshield]

I have an extremely friendly and approachable german shepherd. She is very sweet with strangers and is happy to meet everyone.

Well, the other day we were walking down the road and there was a woman walking towards us on the other side of the road. I thought for sure my dog would yank me towards her to go say hi but instead, as soon as my dog noticed the woman she stopped dead in her tracks and started pulling me back towards home crying and barking. I was confused at first so I tried to get my dog to calm down but then when I turned toward the woman I noticed she didn't have any shoes on which kind of creeped me out (its very cold here right now) so I decided to listen to my dog and turn around and go back home.

Do you think maybe my dog sensed the woman was dangerous or something? Have you had any experiences like this or know of any stories that are related?

Yes, in answer to your question dogs often can sense things we cannot. They pick up on body language that we may not notice, they can smell scents that we give off that our noses are not sensitive to. My older dog is a German Shepherd as well and he has also always been friendly and accepting of strangers. Once when I was younger and lived alone, I was having some cable installed in the apartment I lived in and Thor reacted very strongly toward the cable guy. I had to physically restrain him the entire time the guy was there because he kept growling and pulling to get at him. Thor has never done that with anyone else ever since. I trust his judgement of people. Now my Bulldog would walk away with a serial killer if he brought her a cookie and patted her head so her opinion of people doesn't mean a whole lot lol.

---------- Post added 2011-12-02 at 09:30 AM ----------

My German Shepherd freaks out and trys to run from kids cause I'm nervous of her around them cause she plays rough.

When I get nervous around adults though she gets very protective and pulls out her teeth. Oh and she has a bad habit of attacking any dog that growls, barks, just looks like it could be aggressive. She mauled my neighbors Lab/pit mix because she chased after her while playing and growled.

Dogs are very good at picking up on our emotions as well. They can sense when we are afraid of something, angry, etc.

[Snow White]

my Bulldog would walk away with a serial killer if he brought her a cookie and patted her head so her opinion of people doesn't mean a whole lot lol.

Lmao! I assumed that about my girl but now I'm not so sure. :P

[Deleted]

My dogs can sense when someone is going to die.

Every time a relative, friend or someone in the neighbourhood dies my dogs go apeshit the day before. Crying, whining, barking, howling running around etc. The person might not even have ever met the dogs. So yeah, if dogs can sense when people are gonna die then they can probably sense bad people. Also, my dogs hate people that me and my bro hate, like people who are kinda creepy or not good people. I'm not sure if that is because we dislike them or maybe the dogs sense it for themselves that the people are slightly off.

Either way, I don't think it was a mere coincidence that your dog behaved the way it did.

I ve seen something similar on the news, about a cat that could sense death.

Also, the woman you saw on road, maybe she was a victim of robbery some min ago and she was without shoes. And that the dog sensed her fear and tried to protect you from the thieves nearby. I ve seen ppl stealing expensive clothes and shoes before. For a dog to act so scared by only 1 woman seems weird to me

[Deleted]

Its a bit weird for a dog to act so scared because of a single shoeless woman. She should bark at her or trying to attack.
Maybe your dog sensed fear on that lady and was trying to protect you from nearby thieves that robed that woman ^^ Expensive clothes and shoes are also thieves' targets.

[Deleted]

So you you base your danger-evaluation on the fact that she wasn't wearing shoes?

...that's a little presumptuous.

[Linaver]

They can tell when something feels out of place.

[Arcadem]

I have an extremely friendly and approachable german shepherd. She is very sweet with strangers and is happy to meet everyone.

Well, the other day we were walking down the road and there was a woman walking towards us on the other side of the road. I thought for sure my dog would yank me towards her to go say hi but instead, as soon as my dog noticed the woman she stopped dead in her tracks and started pulling me back towards home crying and barking. I was confused at first so I tried to get my dog to calm down but then when I turned toward the woman I noticed she didn't have any shoes on which kind of creeped me out (its very cold here right now) so I decided to listen to my dog and turn around and go back home.

Do you think maybe my dog sensed the woman was dangerous or something? Have you had any experiences like this or know of any stories that are related?

The do not sense, They observe.

[Arkie]

I've had two guard dogs, a rottweiler and a cane corso, both males and I've seen each of them take a piss off at random people for no discernable reason. I knew there was some triggering mechanism at work that set them off. A couple of guys from a local came to my house to work on my riding mower. One of the guys I've been friends with for nearly thirty years, the other, I couldn't stand. My corso was here alone and refused to let the guy I didn't like through the gate. Axle had no clue I didn't like the guy and really didn't know my friend although he allowed him entry and didn't bother him. They just seem to have a sixth sense we may never truly understand. As one poster said earlier, they can smell fear. Their noses are roughly 200k more sensitive than ours if they're trained to smell for certain odors, there's rarely ever fooling one, especially the shepards and bloodhounds due to their long scent chambers.

[skatblast]

Dogs definitely have a sixth sence. My dad taught me to not act or be afraid of a random/stray dog and they will not attack you. It has always worked, one time i was walking home from a job and a random black dog came out of nowhere and started growling at me in the alleyway. I basically just got as pissed as i could and stared the dog right in the eyes and it went away after a few mins.

[Puck]

Dog`s can't read peoples minds, they may be able to tell if someone wants to harm you based on body language but they could never just see a person and sense that person is a murderer or something.

[-Zait-]

I'm sure they could sense some bad vibes coming from someone, through body language, smell...I really don't know but it makes sense.

[Tastyfish]

Your dog probably noticed body language that you did not.

I would think this is what is really going on. I think they have to be more aware because of what they are. They do that whole, hey man I have a bad feeling about this, thing we do too. The animals personality also affects it too.
Maybe we are too conditioned to believe that other animals cannot be like us, so when they express themselves in ways we understand, it's amazing.

Edit: Our history and the dogs run side by side, Literally the oldest records of us, have them there with us. Whatever is going on with them, we are still praising them after all this time, and that is amazing to me.

[BlueGender]

So what I get from this thread is, the people whose dog barked at me as I walked by all hate me. Those bastards.

[Arrashi]

Only dog paladins

[Lysah]

I would think this is what is really going on. I think they have to be more aware because of what they are. They do that whole, hey man I have a bad feeling about this, thing we do too. The animals personality also affects it too.
Maybe we are too conditioned to believe that other animals cannot be like us, so when they express themselves in ways we understand, it's amazing.

Edit: Our history and the dogs run side by side, Literally the oldest records of us, have them there with us. Whatever is going on with them, we are still praising them after all this time, and that is amazing to me.

Well, the "dogs" that the earliest records of humans were taming like ten thousand or more years ago were not really dogs, but I agree, it is pretty cool =p

[Christan]

Human beings rely on scent for a hell of a lot of our judgement of one another. This being the case, human scent is quite profound.
It can be that your dog simple didn't like the smell of this person and what it represented.

You know those moments where you meet people and instantly dislike them? Same thing, I suppose.
Edit: Madness is, in fact, represented in human scent.

smell, maybe your dog smelled anger, or urine / feces...

on the flip side maybe the person had just been mugged and your dog smelled someone seriously afraid...

gogo pheromones.

[Frosthero]

Dogs are the smartest things on this planet, not long from now they will have complete domination over the human race, respect the dog as they will lead tomorrow.

[asharia]

they cant sense anything

he/she just didnt like or felt threatened by something about the person. smell or look etc. it doesnt even have to be a rational reaction