Fun Facts About Dog’s Sense of Smell

For millennia people believed that the sense of smell among dogs is different than ours. The canine sense of smell intrigue one and all.

Scientific researchers have recently come up with intriguing details that indicate the capability of a dog to smell better than humans. You can be sure that they will take you by surprise.

Science says that dog has a more substantial number of receptors in their noses than we human beings. While humans have six million receptors, our canine buddies have an astounding 300 million receptors.

Isn’t that incredible? We are not even in competition. Even their power to analyze various smells is greater than that of ours.

7 Dog’s Sense of Smell Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

1. Their sense of smell is so much better than human beings!

It is common knowledge that the sense of smell is much stronger in our dogs than in ours. There are many ways in which you can interpret this particular sentence.

However, if you can think of how your dog smells when an object is wet, you would get what we are trying to say over here.

As far as noise sensitivity is concerned, we are nowhere compared to our furry friends. There are plenty of numbers to prove how better their sense of smell is when compared to ours. The numbers vary between being 10, and a million times better.

Scientists say that dogs can detect some odors at concentrations of parts per trillion! A small example illustrates how better they are at smelling things. For example, let us consider a gram of butyric acid, a component of our sweat.

The thing with butyric acid is that human beings are pretty good at smelling it. If you put that gram of butyric acid in a city like Philadelphia, which has a total area of 135 square miles, and under an enclosure 300 feet high, an average dog would still be able to smell it!

On the other hand, humans can detect a faint scent if it evaporates in a 10-story building. When you think of it, we can never dismiss this instance as a weird statistic!    

Read Also: 9 Dog Facts That You Didn’t Know

2. As far as dogs are concerned, we humans stink!

You may be proud of how clean you are and how much you spend on soap, deodorant, and perfume to keep you fresh and smell good.

However, the thing is that we are nothing but stinkers to dogs, and splendidly so. Each human has a unique scent, just like our fingerprints.

It is also the scent that a dog uses to differentiate between people. Now, canine cognition experts have found out that to dogs, the body odor of humans is a significant factor that helps them recognize things related to each one of us. They say that for dogs, we humans stink. Our armpits are the primary source of the odor emitted by our bodies.

Our breath tends to confuse them because of the melody of smells that it has. Our genitals are disturbing propositions for them. Now comes the skin that covers our bodies. However, our skin is covered by sebaceous glands and even sweat.

The sebaceous glands produce oils and fluids with the unique human odor that dogs identify us with. Whenever we touch anything, we leave a bit of ourselves over there. It could be a fragment of our skin with clutches of bacteria steadily eating away at the surface and excreting.

3. Dogs can pick up all invisible things because of their sense of smell!

When we walk even one step, we shed loads of skin flakes. It is a lot like Pigpen, the character from Peanuts, and his dirt cloud that seems to follow him around everywhere.

Real people have the same thing. It is just that they comprise skin cells. In their flake form, skin cells are described as “scurf” or “rafts.”

You may not know this, but at each minute, we shed fifty million skin cells. We may not be able to see those skin fragments at all. The thing is that they are visible to the noses of our dogs. Thanks to the biological richness of these skin pieces that include a lot of bacteria.

4. Dogs’ powerful sense of smell can never be fooled! 

Research has proven time and again that there is a high chance that a dog can pick up emotions such as fear, sadness, and anxiety. All thanks to their sense of smell. Adrenaline, the hormone that helps us fight or move away from scenes of conflict, cannot be detected by our noses.

However, it appears that dogs can smell the same. Besides that, when we are anxious or afraid, our blood flow and heart rate increase. A dog’s powerful sense of smell picks up these essential things.

5. Dogs use their sense of smell and pee to send messages! 

Dog experts say that dogs read the world through their noses. Their messages to other dogs are conveyed through their urine. Hence, when you have taken out your dog for a walk, and they are sniffing everything, you may feel the temptation to drag them along with you.

However, do not do so. Let them discover what is happening in the neighborhood and write a small piece while at it.

6. Dogs learn about each other by smelling their nether regions! 

You may have seen your dog sniffing the nether regions of other dogs and vice versa, even as you are talking to them. There is a high chance that they are using these opportunities to learn about each other. Science is yet to figure out what they learn through such interactions.

Moreover, what they do with the knowledge they gain in such ways. However, some studies indicate a high chance dogs learn about each other’s personality, age, and diet through such interactions.

7. Science has amped-up studies on dogs’ sense of smell!

Dogs are the closest to human beings. Studies are still being conducted about their sense of smell as their qualities intrigue us to learn more about them. It has gone up to a level unlike any before it.

Possibly, the primary reason dogs these days play an imperative role in the armed forces worldwide, whether through detecting IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and saving lives, and supporting rescue operations and military actions.

A critical reason for this could be the amazing sense of smell these wonderful creatures have. Thus, the more we know, the more it increases our thirst for further knowledge. Now, there are studies conducted at universities across the world.

Conclusion

Dogs have an incredible sense of smell, far more advanced than humans. They have over 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses and can detect scents 1,000 times weaker than humans can smell. Some dog breeds, such as Bloodhounds and Basset Hounds, are known for their exceptional sense of smell and are often used for tracking and detection purposes.

Additionally, dogs can even detect changes in human health, such as detecting low blood sugar levels in people with diabetes or detecting certain types of cancer.

Overall, dogs’ sense of smell is an amazing and fascinating aspect of their biology that allows them to perceive the world in ways that humans simply cannot.