Page 86 - The Miracles of Smell and Taste

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Dogs: Olfactory Experts
The scents perceived by someone walking along the street and their

dogs are hardly the same. Dogs obtain a great deal of detailed information
about their surroundings from smells of which their owner is quite una-
ware. They collect information by analyzing scents left by other dogs and
the individual scents of nearby human beings. They are able to analyze
even the slightest smells in the air.
Dogs’ noses are extraordinarily sensitive: Some breeds’ scent sensi-
tivity is up to a million times that of human beings’. 62 A few statistics will
help dramatize this special design. In the human nose, the scent region is
5 square centimeters (0.775 of a square inch), but as
much as 150 square centimeter (23.25 square in) in
dogs. 63 And in the canine nose, there are many
times more scent receptors. A fox terrier, for ex-
ample, has 147 million, and a German shep-
herd, 225 million. 64

In the same
environment,
human beings
and dogs will
perceive very
different
smells. Dogs
are able to
detect many
smells that
we cannot.

The Miracles of Smell and
Taste