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The Incredible Nose Of A Dog

While sight is probably the dominant sense for humans, in dogs the sense of smell is dominant. This isn’t a happenstance. God designed dogs to have a dominant sense of smell. While the human brain is dominated by a large visual cortex, a dog’s brain is dominated by an olfactory (smell) cortex. Relative to its brain size, a dog’s olfactory cortex is about 40 times larger than that in humans.

On account of this, a canine’s sensory world is comprised of many savory and unsavory smells that intermingle and constantly change. Humans are unable to smell the vast majority of these scents. Our sensory world is very different than that of canines.

I have a golden retriever and a beagle. I enjoy baking homemade dog treats for these two dogs. I have observed that when I put out some of these dog treats into our yard, our dogs don’t seek for them by using their eyes. At first glance, it seems a bit odd that, even though the food is in plain sight, my two dogs sniff them out.

Nevertheless, it’s only strange because we humans live in such a totally different sensory universe. If we had to find things just by smell, we would be virtually helpless. Similarly, a dog would be in a tough situation without his sense of smell. For a dog, to find food using smell rather than sight is the obvious thing to do.

Beyond Incredible: A Dog’s Sense of Smell

In truth, a dog’s sense of smell is around fifty to one hundred times stronger than is that of humans. In fact, dogs can discriminate between scents at concentrations nearly 100 million times lower than can humans. Dogs can even detect the presence of a tiny drop of blood in two gallons of water. Outdoors, the more air flow there is, the more smells a dog will be able to pick up.

This past January, I threw out a piece of bread crust on top of the snow for the birds that come to our bird feeders. Since there was plenty of bird seed in the feeders and spread on the ground, the birds ignored the piece of crust. Afterwards, we received more than a foot of snow, and the bread crust was completely buried as a result. In fact, I figured that the birds had eaten it.

The next day, our pet dog walked by the bird feeders when I let her out to exercise. She instantly caught the smell of something, and she quickly buried her head in the snow. I figured maybe there was a mouse down there or some other critter. Yet, she soon came back out, proudly displaying the bread crust in her mouth. Although it was old and dry and was buried under a foot of snow, our dog immediately caught the smell just from trotting by.

Ever since that time, we have turned this into a daily game. I hide dog biscuits in our yard. Next, I call our dog, and she sniffs them out.

Dogs: Man’s Best Friend

It didn’t take mankind very long to value the remarkable canine sense of smell and to make use of it. For example, for several millennia, humans have used dogs to track down prey. In our day, humans have used canines to find missing persons and escaped convicts. A bloodhound and many other canine breeds can follow a human scent although it’s a few days old. Even after it has rained, a dog can follow the scent.

In recent years, the government has trained canines to sniff out explosives and illegal drugs. A smuggler can place the explosives or drugs in an airtight container with many powerful scents around them. Nevertheless, a drug-sniffing hound will have no trouble pinpointing the illegal drugs.

Someday, some dog may save your life. It may be your own pet. Remarkably, canines have even detected cancerous tumors in humans. So treat your pet as a friend. Reward your dog with a good place to live, plenty of attention, a nutritious diet, and plenty of dog treats.

The writer, Robert Hamilton, is a pet lover who writes frequently on the subject of dogs. He enjoys making his own special dog food and dog treats at home. Why not try making some for your own special pet? Mr. Hamilton has posted a number of free recipes for homemade canine treats on his website.

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