Why Dogs Can Detect Terminators

As first revealed by Kyle Reese in the original Terminator film, the ability of dogs to detect the presence of Terminators makes them a great asset. Of course, dogs detecting evil in general is a commonly used trope in movies and TV shows, sometimes extending to cats and just animals in general. This is likely to do with how animals have always seemed to possess some kind of “sixth sense” that humans don’t have about things, as well as the fact that dogs specifically are “man’s best friend” and we look at them as companions.

Even in real life, a lot of animal lovers will become suspicious of a person they meet that is uncomfortable around animals, or that animals don’t seem to like. That’s probably not the fairest thing in the world, but that doesn’t mean some people aren’t going to do it, and allow their opinion of another human to be affected by the seeming opinion of a dog or other trusted animal friend.

So, why exactly can dogs detect Terminators? The films have never offered a concrete answer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use the information available to try and figure it out. After all, we may need to know why for when the inevitable robot apocalypse happens in reality.

Why Dogs Can Detect Terminators

When telling Sarah Connor about the evolution of Terminators the human resistance had to deal with, Kyle Reese revealed that early infiltrator models had rubber skin, which made them easy enough to spot. Once they got to the Arnold Schwarzenegger T-800 type though, Skynet had figured out how to mimic things like breath and sweat. Yet, dogs are shown to be able to quickly detect even these advanced models, alerting nearby humans.

This appears to be due to the animals being somehow able to smell the difference between a human and a machine, presumably because of something found only within the artificial scent of a machine, even wearing organic skin on top. As seen in one of Kyle’s flashbacks, humans allow the dogs to smell their hands when returning to base, and Kyle is even seen doing the same action with a dog outside a hotel in 1984, seemingly out of habit. An alternate theory, presented in the 2004 Terminator tie-in novel Terminator Hunt, written by Aaron Allston, states that dogs can actually be trained to hear the servos moving inside Terminators. However, that wouldn’t entirely explain their ability to detect liquid metal Terminators like the T-1000 in Terminator 2.

However, one factor that throws a monkey wrench in any attempt to fully justify the ability of dogs to detect Terminators is that there’s a scene in Terminator 2 where a dog encounters Arnold’s T-800, and doesn’t bark. More recently, in Terminator: Dark Fate, the retired Terminator known as “Carl” owns a pet dog, who seems perfectly happy in his presence. Does that mean dogs in the Terminator universe can actually detect malevolent intent? It’s not a logical conclusion, but then again, this is a universe where time travel is possible.

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