Quote:
Originally Posted by Nirvana
I don't think dogs are capable of the placebo effect and Rescue Remedy comes in alcohol free.
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No, but they are highly keyed into their human's behavior.
I would imagine the placebo effect can be transitive. Human gets mellower expecting the dog to get mellow. The dog gets mellower because of the change in the human.
Absent a human the dog has no input and thus doesn't change its behavior. I would guess that's what the studies control for, but I didn't read the linked articles.
The dog might also develop a conditioned response so that getting the drops mellows them out just by having been given drops.