We All Know That Dogs Have A Strong Sense Of Smell
However, have you ever wondered how exactly strong their sense of smell is? If you know, you will surely be amazed and impressed!
Continue reading if you want to know how strong a dog’s nose is.
The Power Of The Nose
According to some scientists, a dog’s sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than that of humans! How cool is that?
Now, you might wonder, what exactly that means. Let us give you an example. For humans, they may be able to detect a teaspoon of sugar added to a cup of coffee. However, for dogs, they can detect the same amount of sugar added to two Olympic-sized pools!
Another example is that dogs can even detect one rotten apple in two million barrels. Some people explained it with this analogy: if you can see something over a third of a mile, your dog can see it more than 3,000 miles. That’s how powerful their noses are. The dog’s ability to detect smell is simply out of this world.
The Power To Differentiate Odors
Now, the power of a dog’s nose doesn’t just stop in detecting an odor, but they can easily distinguish what that smell is.
Here’s something to consider: humans only have six million olfactory receptors, but dogs have up to 300 million of them.
That’s why, when a dog smells something, they can instantly know what it is. If you go to a fish market, you can easily detect the smell of the place as something fishy. On the other hand, for dogs, they don’t just smell fish, but they can know what fish they are smelling!
The Power To Detect Directions
Another amazing power of your dog is to know where an odor is coming from or where it is going. They simply know the direction of a smell.
One difference between the nose of dogs and humans is the internal anatomical design. In humans, air passes in a single pathway. In dogs, they have a certain fold of tissue that separates the air, one for respiration and one for olfaction. That’s the reason they have a more powerful detecting power of what the smell is.
Because of this ability, It is not difficult to see that dogs are super effective in tracking objects, people, and other animals. They can use a faint smell and track it down until it gets stronger and stronger. That’s how hunting dogs are able to find their prey in the wild and how tracking dogs help us find lost people and objects.
The Power To Travel Through Time
An exceptional ability of dogs is to know where you came from and what is approaching. For dogs, they can detect scents that have been left by people and objects. So, they are good at telling what has been in a room and what is missing, thereby traveling back in time.
When it comes to detecting future events, they can sense people and objects approaching. That’s why you might have observed your dog being able to know that your husband is coming well before you can hear the car approaching the garage.
The Power To Detect Emotions
Dogs are good at reading our mood. This is made possible by the vomeronasal organ found inside a dog’s nose. We don’t possess this organ, but dogs have them. The vomeronasal organ, also known as Jacobson’s organ, can pick up pheromones that our body and others release.
This is the reason that dogs can know whether someone or another animal is a friend or foe, friendly or aggressive, happy or sad, sick or healthy. So, if you think your dog somehow knows how you feel, better believe that because they really do!
A Power That Benefits Dogs And Us
As you can see, dogs can be considered as animals with real superpowers. With their strong sense of smell, they can see the world in a way that we don’t.
Not only that, but researchers are now looking for ways to take advantage of a dog’s amazing ability. For example, dogs are not just useful in detecting illegal substances, looking for missing people, and rescuing trapped individuals, but now, they are being used to detect cancer cells and tumors.
Humans still have a long way of truly understanding the animal we consider as man’s best friend. However, for now, we can all stop and appreciate how truly astounding dogs can be and how blessed we are to have them as our companion!
