Why are dogs afraid of the aroma of cooked lamb?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the phenomenon of domestic dogs exhibiting fear or anxiety in response to the aroma of cooked lamb. Participants explore various hypotheses regarding the causes of this behavior, including the potential influence of spices and individual dog experiences.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants note that many dogs show anxious behavior around cooked lamb, citing anecdotal evidence from various online sources.
  • One conjecture suggests that dogs may not be afraid of lamb itself but rather the spices commonly used in its preparation, which could irritate their sensitive noses.
  • Another participant mentions that lamb is a fatty meat, which carnivores typically enjoy, raising questions about why dogs would dislike it.
  • There is mention of a specific case where a dog from a shelter exhibited fear of lamb, while other dogs raised in the same household did not, suggesting a potential conditioning effect related to exposure to spices.
  • Some participants express that they have never known a dog to dislike lamb, indicating a possible divide in experiences.
  • One participant references a scientific study identifying various aroma compounds in lamb, suggesting that certain odors may be unpleasant to dogs.
  • Another participant shares their personal experience of giving leftover lamb to their dog, who did not seem to mind, indicating variability in individual dog reactions.
  • There is a proposal for a controlled experiment to determine if dogs prefer lamb without spices over lamb with spices, highlighting the uncertainty in the discussion.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the reasons behind dogs' aversion to cooked lamb. Multiple competing views remain, including the influence of spices, individual dog experiences, and the nature of lamb itself.

Contextual Notes

The discussion includes references to anecdotal evidence and personal experiences, with no definitive conclusions drawn. There are also mentions of potential conditioning effects and individual variability among dogs.

Who May Find This Useful

Dog owners, animal behaviorists, and those interested in pet nutrition may find this discussion relevant.

  • #31
I have a 6 year old mutt (lab / chow cross maybe) who is afraid of lamb too. It has nothing to do with the spices as she reacts with fear and anxiety to raw lamb bones especially. When cooking lamb she really freaks out, but after it's cooked, she's happy to have the bones to chew. go figure.
 
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  • #32
Might it smell like death?

Animals can definitely smell death and disease, and do react to it.
 
  • #33
gravenewworld said:
Might it smell like death?

Animals can definitely smell death and disease, and do react to it.

Dogs, like most mammals in the carnivore order, eat meat. In fact, dogs are famous for being scavengers. Dogs get their meat either by hunting or by scavenging. Jackals and wolves are famous for being scavengers. If death was such a big deal to them, then they couldn't eat meat. They especially wouldn't be good scavengers.

Various cultures worshiped dog spirits especially because dogs can be scavengers. Anubis, the jackal god, was worshiped by the Egyptians as a god of death. The wolves of Odin were worshiped along side his ravens, which are also scavengers. Dogs are not afraid of dead bodies.

Dogs probably avoid very rancid meat. A dog could get sick on rotten meat like any other mammal, even carnivores. So if the meat were rotten, then I would say that explained it. However, according to the story these dogs were being offered high quality lamb meat. So you can't explain the fear of lamb because it was diseased.
 
  • #34
This reminds me of Georg Forster, A Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years, 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (1777). There he describes that the natives of New Sealand did eat their dogs. They were feeding the bones to the other dogs. While the European dogs they had brought with them on the ship refused to eat of the bones, the native dogs had no problem with this kind of cannibalism. He pointed out that this different behaviour also was found with puppies so that it was probably not trained but heritable.
 
  • #35
I can almost imagine what these poor dogs had to go through. The smell of lamb is the only smell from food that I can not stand for. One bite or in a room of cooking lamb can make me feel seriously sick and throw up straight away. I find it very upsetting, strong, gamey, smelly, and gross to be honest.

I know most of my friends don't mind it at all. But I just can not even get close to a lamb dish without feeling deeply disgusted. If someone use the knife he/she cut lamb with to cut some chicken, I would instantly throw up at one bite of the chicken too. Same goes sharing the same cutting board, cooking utensils and anything that had contact with lamb.

I can not explain why I hate the smell so much but I can imagine dogs have better nose than me and they could feel very upset at the smell. I do have a sensitive nose - my perfumes always get compliments in elevators and on the street. Some deodorant and perfumes are too strong for me to smell too, but no where as close to the level of how disgusting lamb is.
 
  • #36
Perhaps it's breed dependent? Not very helpful but I don't know if anyone has considered this.
 
  • #37
I have a 10 year old chocolate lab that is totally normal and have never noticed strange behavior (except for a thunderstorm...) tonight we browned ground lamb in a frying pan and she completely wigged out. When we let her in inside and she smelled it, she quickly ran to the back of the house and hid under a table. She got up a few times and went to the doorway of the room to sniff. She then returned to under the table. The reason I searched this topic was because the last time we cooked lamb she did the same thing but we could not figure out why...It is totally the smell of cooked lamb. Crazy...
 
  • #38
It definitely has something to do with the chemical reactions in cooking gamey meat. my dog has almost violently scared reactions if we cook lamb...Spice or no spice

if we cook particularly gamey meats of other kind she gets mildly anxious. But with lamb she out of her mind. It's like thunder times ten.