Dogs have the most amazing noses. It’s not even an over exaggeration – your dog pretty much has sniffing super powers. But have you ever stopped to nerd out over the facts?
Dogs can literally smell in high-definition stereo, thanks to their complex nasal passage system. Every person, every object on your street or your house, is a treasure trove of smelly delights for your dog. What’s more, your dog’s nose can identify when people are coming over to your house (which is a great reason to do a meet and greet with your DogBuddy dog sitter!) as well as knowing where they’ve been and what they’ve been up to. So you could say that dogs can travel in time… kinda…
Enjoy this fun-filled video! Don’t have four minutes to spare, check out our favourite facts below the video.
Fun and fantastic facts:
- Your dog’s moist nose helps capture scents that float past, and their ‘stereo’ nostrils help them determine which direction the scent is coming from.
- Your dog’s nose has 300 million receptor cells, compared to human noses, which only have a pitiful 5 million
- Dogs have a separate nasal passages (those little slits on the side) for inhaling and exhaling, creating a more complex airflow to aid collecting odours
- Dogs are able to detect scents at concentrations at a rate of 100 million times less than human noses – so pooches can identify a perfume sprayed in a large enclosed stadium.
- Dogs noses help them detect things we can’t see, such as people’s (and other animals) emotions, which helps them determine whether someone is a friend or a potential threat. This “sixth sense” is aided by a special part of their nose called the vomeronasal organ. It’s part of what makes dogs such caring companions.
Want to learn more about how dog’s noses have helped humans, check out this short post about diabetes detecting dogs.