Is there any truth to what people say about dogs being able to sense if someone is a psychopath? Is it true that dogs don't like psychopaths?
Animals have always been said to sense things that humans cannot. And there is a lot of truth to it. Dogs can hear sounds from a distance far beyond that of what a human being can hear, and they can hear sounds both above and below frequencies that human hearing is capable of. The same is the case with the sense of smell, which is most dogs' most powerful and most used sense (exceptions are breeds with pushed in faces such as bulldogs).
Now where does the myth about dogs not liking psychopaths come into the picture? It is commonly known that animals can sense an earthquake days or even weeks before it happens.
Throughout the history of man it has been believed that dogs can sense evil. Even today it is being debated if or how much truth there is to this. In the last few decades religious thinking has been declining, and Evil Spirits, Demons and Witches have been swapped for the newer idea about the psychopath as the ultimate evil.
The question would be: If dogs can sense evil, how do they do it?
The truth is that 'evil' is a human concept, and since dogs cannot think in abstracts whatever it is they sense it is not 'evil'. So what, if anything, do they sense? Can dogs sense anything about the mindset of a human being at all?
The answer to this is: Yes.
Dogs can sense the mindset of a person, but they do it in a very different manner than humans do. When a human is being aggressive and has "evil" intentions toward a dog or the dog's owner, the human generates particular scent particles associated with the brain transmitter substances according to the feeling he is experiencing, such as f.x. Adrenalin.
The key element dogs use to to pick up information about someone's state of mind is sweat. Almost all people sweat when they are about to undertake an act of aggression and violence. The exception is psychopaths. Psychopaths often do not generate sweat during an anticipated act of violence because we don't experience much emotion. Our brain processing is largely cognitive and only rarely emotional in nature (though obviously we are talking about tendencies here. There are nobody alive and functioning who never experiences some level of emotion, but that's another discussion).
Dogs can sense human emotion such as fear, anxiety or anger, the so called Primary Emotions. But psychopaths don't generate much emotions for the dog to sense, and this may be the reason why we more commonly can get close to dogs more easily than other people.
And this brings me to the answer to your question: Do dogs sense if someone is a psychopath, and is it true that dogs do not like psychopaths?
Dogs do not have any concept of 'psychopath', just as they have no concept of 'evil', so they cannot sense that I am a psychopath. But there is no doubt about they can sense there is something different about me, and that something is different also in other psychopaths.
As for dogs not liking psychopaths: This is a myth and has no truth to it whatsoever.I can say this without a doubt, because whereas a psychopathic individual who attacks a dog's owner in the middle of the night may be seen as a threat by the dog, the same is the case if somebody who is not a psychopath does the same thing. It is not about being a psychopath, it is about the emotional baggage you carry with you when you have malicious intent. And this is what psychopaths largely lack. This is related to what the professionals call Flat or Shallow Affect in Psychopaths.
In fact, much speaks to the contrary of dogs not liking psychopaths.
Dogs like people who are calm and assertive. And this is exactly what psychopaths generate, unless they choose to do otherwise. Most psychopaths - at least those of my sub-type - are very observant not only to human behavior, but also to animal behavior. When I once read a book about the subject of dog training and rearing, I saw I had been doing exactly what was advised right from the beginning when I met neighbors' dogs as a kid. Before then I never gave it much thought and merely acted according to what seemed most likely to have the effect I was looking for, and it worked.
Generally speaking it is very easy for psychopaths to get along with dogs. I myself have on several occasions shown that I can take over as "pack leader", even when the owner is an experienced dog trainer and not very positive to the idea. I have met a couple of psychopaths who were capable of doing the same thing.