While sight is the predominant sense in humans, in canines the sense of smell is predominant. This isn’t by accident. Canines were designed to possess a dominant sense of smell. While the brain in humans is dominated by a large visual cortex, a dog’s brain is dominated by an olfactory (smell) cortex. Relative to the size of its brain, the olfactory cortex in a dog is forty times greater than that in man.
As a result of this, the sensory world of a dog is made up of dozens of pleasant and unpleasant odors that intersect and constantly change. We humans cannot detect the vast majority of these scents. The sensory world of humans is very different than that of a dog.
I have a golden retriever and a beagle. I enjoy making homemade dog treats for our two dogs. I have observed that when I toss out some of these treats into the yard, our two dogs don’t find them by sight. At first I thought it was strange that, even though the dog treats are in plain sight, both my dogs look for them by sniffing the ground until they find them.
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 fact, a dog’s sense of smell is around 50 to 100 times greater than is that of humans. Actually, canines can discriminate odors at concentrations nearly 100 million times lower than can humans. Dogs are able to sense the presence of a tiny drop of blood diluted in two gallons of water. The more air flow there is outside, the more scents dogs will be able to detect.
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.
Nevertheless, the next day when I let out my beagle to play, she happened to go near the bird feeders. She instantly caught the whiff of something, and soon her head was buried in the snow. I guessed that there was probably a rodent hiding down there or something. Yet, she soon came back out, displaying the crust in her jaws. She had instantly caught the scent of the crust merely from walking by it, although it was old and dry and was buried under a foot of snow.
Since that episode, we’ve made a regular game out of it. I hide my dog treats somewhere on our lawn. Then I turn her loose to find them.
Why Dogs Are Man’s Best Friend
Humans didn’t take long to appreciate the keen sense of smell that dogs have and to begin using it. For many centuries, men have used dogs in hunting. In more recent times, humans have used canines to find missing persons and escaped convicts. A scent hound and many other kinds of dogs can track a person’s scent even though it is several days old. A dog can follow the scent even after an ordinary rain.
In the past few decades, dogs have been trained to sniff out illegal drugs and explosives. A person can try placing the explosives or drugs in an airtight container surrounded by other strong odors. Regardless, a drug-sniffing dog will have no difficulty smelling the illegal drug.
Who knows? Someday some dog may save your life or protect you from injury. She may be your own dog. What’s more, some dogs have actually be able to detect malignant tumors in their owners. Therefore, treat your dog as the friend she truly is. Reward her with a a nutritious diet, plenty of attention, a good place to live, and lots of dog treats.
The writer, Robert Hamilton, is a pet lover who often writes about 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 dog treats on his website.
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