Will my dog recognize me and be chill?

[CaptainAFAB]

This is a weird one. Starting testosterone soon, but I'm also worried my dog will think I'm a doppelganger or something. Surely dogs notice changes in smell to some extent?

[katrinaw]

Animals smell and look at the face, stance and movements.

I have a dog who has no problem with how I look or smell (scent / perfume wise... LoL)

I would think you'll be fine

L Katy 

[iKate]

My cat (tiger, RIP) smelled me when I first started with E. He didn't recognize me for a few days but he was cool after that:

[AndrewB]

I have three dogs in my family who have all been totally cool, no obvious signs of being unable to recognise me or anything. Dogs rely more on scent, and while your scent may slightly change on T, it's not going to be day and night in comparison. In fact, now that I'm more comfortable in my skin, I feel like my dogs are more comfortable around me, like maybe there was a small barrier between pre-transition me and them. 

[CaptainAFAB]

Thanks everyone!

[Jenna Marie]

It's also fairly gradual, at least for an animal's sense of smell. None of my five cats were fazed by it at all.

[Rachel]

I have 3 cats and a dog. Only the dog sniffed me for a few days. He recognized me but just sniffed me a lot. He is a red tick coon hound and they have good sniffers.

[KristinaM]

I started a low-dose of E and Spiro 3 days ago.  We have 3 cats.  1 of them is an ->-bleeped-<- and I don't like her anyways, another one is mentally damaged and loves everyone and everything, the third cat has always been "mine" of a sorts.  He lays with me in bed everynight and so on, but he's been kind of avoiding me the past couple days.  Like he's trying to figure out who I am again.

I would have never believed that it'd affect him that strongly on such a low dose and so soon.  But it's either that, or he's damaged in some other way, lol.  My wife took him to the vet today to find out.

[KristinaM]

Turns out my cat actually has a problem.   Something in his ear is screwing with his equilibrium.

Carry on with your previous discussions, nothing to see here.

[Marlee]

I started a low-dose of E and Spiro 3 days ago.  We have 3 cats.  1 of them is an ->-bleeped-<- and I don't like her anyways, another one is mentally damaged and loves everyone and everything, the third cat has always been "mine" of a sorts.  He lays with me in bed everynight and so on, but he's been kind of avoiding me the past couple days.  Like he's trying to figure out who I am again.

I would have never believed that it'd affect him that strongly on such a low dose and so soon.  But it's either that, or he's damaged in some other way, lol.  My wife took him to the vet today to find out.

Perhaps the ->-bleeped-<- cat is a jealous feline dysphoric? 

[Mariah]

My animals didn't miss a beat. The only one I know took a notice was one of my to cats and all she did was take another smell of me as to something was different so she had to check it out. Hugs
Mariah

[Emjay]

We had 3 dogs,  3 cats and two horses when I started HRT.  The only one who acted weird was my horse.  She became EXTREMELY hard to catch in the pasture, and in retrospect I think it was unrelated to my starting HRT and had more to do with the fact that she just didn't want to work when she had so much nice green grass to munch on.  (It was early April after all!    ) 

My therapist did mention she had a client who had that issue once though,  with their dog.  She said it was a short lived issue though so I think even if your dog acts up it won't be for long.

[insanio]

The changes should be gradual enough that they won't be freaked out by any abrupt developments.

[FTMax]

I haven't had issues with either of my dogs. One has a personal issue with men aside from my dad, so I was worried she'd snap one day if she couldn't place my scent. But it's been 6 months and she's fine.

[awilliams1701]

My dog still knows who I am. I think the change is gradual.

[CaptainAFAB]

Thanks, everyone! I know it's silly but right now my dog is my only IRL supportive mammal friend, so it means a lot to me to hear your reassurance.

[awilliams1701]

I had the exact same concern as you. She's not my only support IRL, but I don't have a lot of close support. I have a lot of people that I barely know that are in support of me, but I wouldn't count on them for anything as I don't really know any of them all that well.