Dogs’ Sense of Smell

The sense of smell is the most important sense for dogs. Have you asked yourself: how much better does a dog smell compared to a human? Here you will find out that dogs can practically see smells.

Therefore, the nose is a very important sensory organ for the dog. Almost the entire daily routine is determined by sensory impressions that our four-legged friends gain through their noses.

Let’s just think of a walk. Dogs sniff at everything that crosses their path. New objects in the home or strangers are also sniffed out first.

Dogs’ sense of smell is so good that humans take advantage of this special sense. Dogs even save lives with their sense of smell. Just think of:

• rescue dogs
• avalanche dogs
• drug detection dogs
• assistance dogs such as diabetic alert dogs

But how good is this sense of smell?

Why do dogs have a good sense of smell?

Dogs are nose animals. In technical jargon, this is called a macrosmatic. They perceive their environment primarily through their nose. The eyes and ears are less important.

When walking, dogs constantly sniff the ground, trees, and house walls. In this way, the dog recognizes which conspecifics have already passed by and whether foreign dogs have invaded its territory.

Dogs use it to find out about everyday events. We can roughly compare this to reading the daily newspaper. Or when we talk to neighbors about what is happening in the area.

This is exactly why daily walks are so important to your dog’s social life.

Dogs talk about sniffing

The marking of the males and occasionally also the females serves exactly this purpose. Your scent mark is left behind to signal other dogs: Hey, I was here today.

When dogs meet conspecifics, they are the first to be inspected. If the posture is correct and nobody shows a defensive reaction, the animals sniff each other.

The anal region is of great importance. Because this is where most of the glands are located. The scents from it provide information about the health and state of mind of the animal.

That’s why sniffing feces or urine is extremely important for the dog. We think it’s gross. However, dogs can get a lot of information from it.

Therefore, you should tolerate this behavior, even if it is sometimes difficult. However, you must stop eating feces immediately.

Sense of smell of sniffer dogs

Dogs’ special sense of smell can be very useful for us humans. Her nose work has been used successfully in rescuing people for a long time.

• Avalanche dogs sniff out people in the snow.
• In disaster areas, dogs are used to find people in the rubble.
• The classic hunting dog finds the dead game, and the tracking dog follows the potential prey.

Sense of smell in pigs and dogs

Truffles are noble mushrooms that grow underground. They are among the most expensive foods in the world. A kilogram of white truffle is traded for around 9,000 euros.

Pigs’ sense of smell was used for a long time to look for these valuable mushrooms. However, the pigs like to eat the truffles they find themselves.

It has now been recognized that dogs’ sense of smell is also ideal for this task. Dogs find the truffles as well as truffle pigs. And the dog is very unlikely to eat the truffle find itself.

Not to be forgotten, of course, are the sniffer dogs, who can sniff out drugs or explosives and thus do valuable work every day.

Dogs recognize human emotions by smell

It has been known for a long time that dogs respond to human emotions.

The reason for this is that different feelings release different scents. The dog recognizes these and can assign them. So dogs can smell fear and sweat and react accordingly.

But our four-legged friends not only recognize fear or sadness. Dogs can even smell diseases.

This fact has not been known for very long but is already being used very successfully. People give off a special smell before an epileptic seizure threatens. Dogs can recognize this and warn humans in good time.

In diabetics, the odor is sometimes recognizable even to humans. However, dogs react much more quickly and can intervene in good time if the sugar level is too high or too low. That can save lives.

A comparison of the sense of smell in dogs and humans

With all these abilities of our dogs, it is clear that their sense of smell is much better than that of us humans. But what are the differences?

This can be recognized by a large number of olfactory cells.

• Dogs have between 125 and 220 million olfactory cells.
• And how many olfactory cells do humans have?
  In contrast, humans only have five million olfactory cells. That’s a clear difference.

The number of olfactory cells depends on the breed of the dog and the size and shape of the nose. The shepherd dog has significantly more olfactory cells than a pug, for example.

This explains why shepherd dogs are sought-after detection and rescue dogs.

In purely mathematical terms, dogs can smell about 25 to 44 times better than humans. But the dog’s nose can do a lot more.

For example, a dog’s olfactory mucosa is significantly larger than that of humans. In dogs, it occupies an area of ​​150 square centimeters, while humans get by with around five square centimeters.

How much better can dogs smell?

This is why dogs can smell more complex. This means dogs can smell individual components from an odor.

Dogs can also breathe much faster than humans. As a result, they absorb odors more quickly.

The smell impressions are sent directly to the dog’s brain. This olfactory area of ​​the brain takes up around ten percent of the entire brain in dogs.

At this point at the latest, we expose the calculation example using olfactory cells as nonsense. Because large parts of the dog’s body are specialized in the sense of smell. This means that dogs can smell much more than 44 times better than humans.

Dogs even have an olfactory memory. So you remember smells. Bitches can still recognize their offspring years later. And littermates can also recognize each other by smell.

Dogs can also tell the direction of an odor. Think of it this way, how you can distinguish between left and right when listening. This stereo hearing lets you know where a sound is coming from.

Dogs can also distinguish between left and right when it comes to smells. In addition, dogs can move their nostrils independently of each other, making it even easier to identify smells. So dogs can follow tracks.

If the dog loses its sense of smell

The dog’s sense of smell is very different from that of humans. Dogs are much better at smelling than humans.

You can playfully train your pet’s sense of smell with a sniffing carpet, for example.

Every dog ​​takes in smells in different ways and processes this information in the brain. However, this advantage becomes a major disadvantage when a dog loses its sense of smell.

While a human learns to deal with the loss of their sense of smell relatively easily, a dog loses much of its purpose in life. Dogs then find it difficult to orientate themselves in their surroundings.

Frequently Asked Questions

How strong is a dog’s sense of smell?

With their many short breaths, they can smell much better than a human being: Dogs can distinguish an estimated one million different smells, humans “only” 10,000. People have been using this ability of dogs for their purposes for thousands of years.

How does the dog’s sense of smell work?

The palate and nose are connected via a small opening. A dog can absorb substances through its tongue and transport them to the olfactory cells. In this way, it converts taste into smell. Or the other way around: a dog can taste smells.

Can a dog lose its sense of smell?

When the sense of smell is lost, dogs can become depressed. As many dogs age, their sense of smell declines – not as rapidly as the performance of their eyes and ears, but a loss of smell is one of the hardest things for dogs to cope with.

Why does my dog stink so much?

Dead skin cells, hair, dirt, and bacteria have settled in the coat: If the coat is not brushed regularly, it will start to smell, especially in long-haired dogs. If your dog smells and scratches, you should check the skin.

Why do dogs smell better when they sniff?

While we only have about five million olfactory cells, dogs have 150 to 220 million! In addition to these advantages, dogs also use a special olfactory technique that enables better differentiation of odor components. When sniffing, large amounts of air reach the olfactory mucous membranes optimally.

How should the dog’s nose be?

Does a dog’s nose always have to be wet? It is normal for the condition of the nose to change from wet to dry over the day and is subject to natural fluctuations. So if your dog’s nose is only dry and warm intermittently, don’t worry!

How do dogs release heat?

Since dogs only have a few sweat glands on their paws and especially in the ball of their feet, they – unlike us humans – cannot adequately regulate their body temperature in hot weather through sweating. The most important cooling mechanism for dogs is panting.

Can dogs smell how much time has passed?

There is even speculation that dogs can use the diminishing scent of an absent person to anticipate when that person should typically reappear. Dogs see smell, taste, and hear differently than we do. Therefore, no one can say for sure what they are capable of in terms of time.