I have been told that they do

Bearing in mind that dogs can an do detect various medical conditions in other dogs and humans, including detecting various human cancers by smell alone, without the donor of the sample even being present to give any other cues besides purely scent.

Given this ability, I have no doubt they can fairly easily assess human gender by scent. although other factors may aid their determination and subsequent responses as well, when available.

I think they are also good at assessing canine gender and personally I do not buy into the idea that male dogs are confused that castrated males are female, as they still have other male scents even after castration, such as reduced but still present secretions around the remaining genitalia.

There is also the issue of females entire, neutered, in or out of season also retaining differing scents to neutering males.

Even I can smell the difference between entire and neutered male dog urine and I am sure dogs can tell male from female and neutered from entire urine, of either sex. Not to mention differing primary anatomical location of the "seat" of that urine.

There can of course be other reasons for some males to behave differently around castrated males to how they behave around entire males, be that better or worse behaviour, depending on the individual.

With them being so attuned to subtle canine hormonal changes IMO I doubt they would be particularly challenged by sorted out human gender, or human or health and reproductive status.

Not that all dogs will care about the differences, or behave differently due to them.

Thanks Tass-very informative.

I was once out walking Merlin and bumped into a friend in the street. A young female friend of hers came along and joined in the conversation, making a fuss of Merlin - they had never met before - who sort-of semi-jumped up at her, but stopped with his nose focussed on her abdomen, quite unusual behaviour.

She looked really alarmed at first.... then surprised, and curious, asking: "Can he tell I am pregnant??!"

It was news to us too, so we were just as astonished!

I'm of the opinion that if a dog doesn't like men, then the man in question just has to act responsibly toward the dog to gain it's trust. I base this on an experience I had with an anti man dog. All I did was to offer my hand for the dog to smell etc. before attempting to otherwise engage eg. stroke the dog. We got on fine! The owner was quite amazed that the dog would contemplate associating with a man. So even if a dog can tell gender difference and is offended by one particular gender it isn't quite that simple. Other factors like demeanor probably play a part too. Unless I smell like a girl...

That is a really nice story Did you ever watch the documentry extraordinary dogs? They covered a lot on the highly tuned "nose sense" on dogs.

I hope your friend had a happy healthy baby.

Yes-I have been doing a lot of work with Izzy by talking to strange men on our walks and them offering her treats if they are happy to do so and she is calm! She is so much better now and much more confident. She even walked straight past the council worker on the heath wearing a fluorescent yellow jacket the other day! She would always bark at people wearing these but I have also been speaking to a lot of people in yellow coats too! (note to self-must get a life and stop all this chatting to strangers or the people in white coats may be after me!).

I wish it were that simple, but you do have a point. Where I lived before the area was run by teenage gangs - quite lame by most cities' standards, so lame in fact, they thought it was a good laugh to pick on dog owners in the local park.

Most of the dogs and owners were able to ignore their abuse but my dog couldn't. He became highly reactive and of course it became the highlight of these poor single-celled amoebic excuses for human beings, to wind him up and watch him go every time they saw us, which was on a daily basis and sometimes more than once a day. This abuse and harassment went on for two years until I moved away:
"It's OK, if it bites me it will get put down."
"I'll stab it if she ever lets off lead."

The lasting damage is.... that even though the teens where I am now are polite, and good - and because it is a rural area, they are all shocked that other teens would do that to an animal.... my dog still has an ongoing score to settle with any young male humans from puberty to around 25-ish, especially if they are on a bicycle and/or wearing hoodies.

I also suspect, they all smell to him of pubertal testosterone, sweat and the excitement/fear that those gangs were pumping out when they were trying to goad him into attacking them. Shouty teenagers (male or female) also set him off.

I so wish the authorities had been more interested - at the very least I would have liked some compensation to pay for a behaviourist for my dog to rectify their cruelty, and these "big kids" sent to work at the local rescue centre... that would have meant a lot more to me than an apology.

Thank you - I don't actually know, as it was an old school friend of my friend, but I was very surprised at his reaction.

That is awful, what complete scum bags. I'm glad you have found a nice rural place now, with "normal people" living around you and not feral kids. It sounds like they were deliberately baiting poor Merlin into reacting, and looking big and scary as it shows they are big and hard kids who squared up against the german shepherd. They really have absolutely no clue. I hope now Merlin has moved into a better neighbourhood, he can hopefully overcome his emotions about being around people, and can learn that not all males are bad. It will be a long road, but he can do it.

I think the trouble is, these gangs... actually i won't call them gangs. I will call them yobs are just let off leash to do whatever they feel like. They don't feel threatened by their parents, - who probabaly are no better than they are, and they certainly do not fear the authorities who if they are under age can do nothing to punish them.
They then all group together and socialise by making other peoples lives a complete misery.

Moving sounds like it was the best thing to do! I now do worry about who the next poor dog and owner is going to be. Sadly i think this sort of thing happens all around the country. I think its time the police clamped down on these youths, and severely prosecuted any found carrying offensive weopans. With reference to the one who said they were going to stab your dog!

What scum of the earth :-0(

Absolutely - My Samson is very wary of men and can tell the difference from a distance - his stance changes ears forward, tail down. My Leo was towards the end both deaf and blind but his sense of smell remained and he was always more approachable by women. Very wary of men and more so of children - never mis behave but you could tell the difference.
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