I had a fear of becoming anything a fear of becoming a specialist. I might have become a doctor but if you become a doctor that's your specialty in life and you are defined by it. One of the attractions of being a writer is that you're never a specialist. Your field is entirely open your field is the entire human condition.
What they smell isn't the emotion of fear. What dogs can smell is the changes in a person's skin that suggest fear to the dog anxiety the way your skin sweats the amount of uric acid that suddenly pours out of your pores.