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Scents and Scent-ability!

 

by Kirsten Dillon on May 13, 2014 in The Kirsten Dillon Blog

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Surely everyone knows how good a dog’s sense of smell is, but do you know just HOW good it is?

 

The tissues inside a dog’s nasal cavity are over sixty times larger than the same area in humans and they have over forty times as much of their brain devoted to smell than humans! Therefore we can safely say that a dog’s sense of smell is between 1,000 to 10,000,000 times more sensitive than a humans!

 

For example, we have 5 – 10 million scent receptors and mice have approximately the same, rats have 10 million and a rabbit 20 million. Compare these numbers with different dog breeds;

 

Dachshund              125 million

Fox Terrier              147 million

Beagle                    225 million

German Shepherd    225 million

Bloodhound            300 million!!!!!

 

 

In addition to this, the dog’s nose is specifically designed to detect very faint odors. They can move and wiggle the nostrils independently to source where a particular scent is coming from and can actively gather the scent from the surrounding environment. They also have a special ‘sniffing’ ability which is separate to their actual breathing processes. As they sniff the scent-containing air through the nostrils it passes over a bony shelf like cavity that is designed to trap the odor-containing air and protect it from being washed out when the dog exhales.

 

Because of the amazing ability canines have in detecting odors, we have been able to train them to differentiate, recognize and indicate towards, different smells. Dogs are trained as trailing dogs and air-scenting dogs. Trailing dogs follow a scent on the ground, whereas air-scenting dogs must be able to pick an odor out of a breeze and follow it back to its source. These techniques are used widely in search and rescue operations and manhunts.

 

Dogs are now commonly used to detect many smells in the assistance of humans, some examples are; illegal narcotic detection in prisons, schools and airports, explosive detection at airports or large venues, cadaver dogs are used to detect various stages of human decomposition and arson dogs that can detect chemical traces of accelerant. More recently bio detection dogs are being used to detect changes in body odors that could indicate the onset of an epileptic fit or drop in blood sugar (diabetes) and experiments involving the success rates of dogs detecting cancerous melanoma are ongoing, but proving successful, which is exciting news indeed.

 

Never underestimate your dog’s sense of smell, they are dominated by it and rely on it the same way we rely on language and vision to explore and interpret the world around them.

 

Consider undertaking some fun nose work classes with your dog. Any age, breed and temperament of dog can undertake scent-work and by attending scent-work training, you will be giving your dog the greatest gift possible, the opportunity to use his beloved nose!

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