The Pet Report

Sight is the predominant sense in mankind. However, in canines, the sense of smell is dominant. This isn’t by chance. Dogs are designed to have a dominant sense of smell. In humans, the visual cortex for sight is dominant, but in dogs the olfactory cortex for smell is dominant. A dog’s olfactory cortex is nearly forty times greater than that in humans, relative to the size of its brain.

Because of this, a dog’s sensory world is composed of dozens of good and bad odors that intersect and constantly change. We humans are unable to detect the vast majority of these smells. The sensory world of men and women is very different than that of a dog.

I have a golden retriever and a beagle. I like to make homemade dog treats for our dogs. I’ve observed that when I toss out these dog treats into our yard, our dogs don’t look for them by sight. At first, it seems a bit odd that, even though the dog treats are in plain sight, both my dogs search for them by sniffing the earth.

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.

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

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.

Sometime in the future, some dog may save your life. It may be your own pet dog. Incredibly, some dogs have even detected cancerous tumors in their owners. So treat your pet dog as a friend. Reward your pet with a good place to live, a nutritious diet, plenty of attention, and lots 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 dog biscuits on his website.

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