Pet themes 2009
A world of smells
Where we might only see a green field, dogs “see” where and when people or animals have been with their noses, whether a rabbit, mouse, or perhaps a fellow canine. They put their nose close to the ground to follow interesting scents and in the air to get wind of other animals. Dogs can filter out and concentrate their attention on individual odour molecules from a vast array of scent trails. These are processed by the part of the brain that recognises smells, which provides a wide variety of information about the smell’s origin.
Dogs’ noses are lined with a mucous membrane for smelling, which can cover as much as 200 square centimetres. This is a huge amount in comparison to humans, who have to make do with only three square centimetres. No wonder that dogs are superior to us when it comes to smelling and that their world is a world of smells.
Humans have taken advantage of dogs’ fantastic smelling abilities for hundreds or years by using them to find trails in hunting. Today, rescue dogs, drug and explosives dogs show that these four-legged friends can be trained to recognise just about any odour. Canines can sniff out damaged gas pipes, help look for mines, find truffles and even smell cancer. Rescue dogs sniff out victims up to eight metres below the snow and up to three metres under the earth.
A lack of sense of smell is the worst handicap a dog could have – smell is what opens up the world for them. Newborn puppies are blind and find their mother’s milk through smell alone.
Any dog that wants to be a search dog should essentially have a keen play instinct and be friendly and non-aggressive. They learn how to search, trace and indicate a person or object through play with a dog handler for about two years until their training is complete.
But this doesn't have to turn into a job for your dog – any dog owner can keep their canine friend’s nose busy as a hobby. Looking for trails in the garden, finding hidden objects in the living room and tracking down children from their hiding spot in the forest is great fun for dogs, helps beat boredom and challenges them mentally.
