Specialising in solo walks for your pup, catering to their individual wants and needs 🥰🐶🐾💚
04/03/2025
DID YOU KNOW?
The average dog has around two hundred and twenty million olfactory receptors in the nose, although it can be as many as three hundred million in dogs bred specifically for scentwork. Those tend to have longer ears which help to capture the scent and move it towards the nose.
In comparison, the human has an average of only six million scent receptors.
According to Dr Michael T. Nappier DVM, DABVP of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, their excellent sense of smell enables a dog to detect the equivalent of half a teaspoon of sugar in an Olympic-sized swimming pool!
The canine frontal cortex is smaller than ours, therefore it has different emotional capabilities; it is this part of the brain which is responsible for conscious scent perception. When it comes to canine scenting ability, their brains are forty times more capable than our own, which equates to a sense of smell 10,000 to 100,000 times more powerful!
To help this to compute fully, James Walker, former director of the Sensory Research Institute at Florida State University, describes this in terms of sight: “If you make the analogy of vision, what you and I can see at a third of a mile, a dog could see more than 3,000 miles away and still see as well.” Phenomenal stuff!
The wind musicians amongst you will be thoroughly impressed that dogs can circular breathe. They draw in and process scent at the same time as they breathe in and out, creating a constant stream of air, effortlessly. They can also use their nostrils independently, creating a 3D scent picture that allows them to pinpoint exactly where a smell originates from. Mind-blowing, really!
For more fascinating facts, why not check out my blog post: https://www.trailiepawsforthought.com/post/the-science-of-scent-part-one
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Image shows a close-up of my scenthound Max's nose and face, taking a nap, as usual!
