A Dog Nose…or is it Knows?
February 19, 2014 at 2:31 pm 14 comments
Charlie Bear here.
Did you know? A dog’s nose is nothing short of a miracle (that one isn’t mine by the way).
Today, Dr. Jon of PetPlace would like to tell you some fascinating things about our sense of smell.
A dog explores and discovers its world through the scent of smell. It is our keenest sense. It is estimated that a dog (like me) can identify smells thousands of times better than humans can. (Which is why dogs are so effective at search and rescue–duh!)
The nose is filled with odor receptors. For you mere humans, the nose has 5 million odor receptors driving your sense of smell. But your dog’s nose is a LOT more sensitive. Dogs can have about 200 million odor receptors in their noses – and for bloodhounds, it can be as high as 300 million!
A dog scientist explains it like this – a dog has the ability to catch a whiff of one rotten apple in two million barrels. One rotten apple! Holy cow!
That means I can smell things you can’t possibly smell. Pretty cool, huh?
What does this mean? I may be a little dog, but I’m superior in a BIG way. Kudos to me! And the next time you see your pooch with his nose in the air, sniffing, it may just be something you can’t even fathom that he smells.
Wiggles and woofs,
Charlie Bear
Entry filed under: Charlie Chat, Dogs. Tags: dog noses, smell, sniffing.
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Taylor's Tips 
1.
Marisa Shadrick | February 21, 2014 at 7:30 am
My dog’s nose turned pink as he got older. I hope his smell accuracy wasn’t impaired. 🙂
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2.
bjtaylorblog | February 21, 2014 at 4:18 pm
Marisa,
Is a pink nose on a dog like age spots on you humans? Gotta wonder but doesn’t matter. We love you…and you love us…regardless.
Woofs and Wiggles,
Charlie Bear
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3.
Meredith | February 20, 2014 at 7:57 am
My mouser Schnauzer Nick is a superlative sniffer!
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4.
bjtaylorblog | February 20, 2014 at 12:25 pm
Nick,
How awesome that you can sniff with the best of ’em. I’d say keep that nose in the air and keep chasin’ those mousies!
Wiggles,
Charlie Bear
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5.
kim | February 19, 2014 at 7:48 pm
hmontes@clemson.edu
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6.
bjtaylorblog | February 20, 2014 at 6:39 am
Kim,
Hope you liked the post!
Wiggles,
Charlie Bear
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7.
Marianne | February 19, 2014 at 7:19 pm
Oh, I’m sure your hearing is better than ours. One of our dog could tell when our vehicle left the parts dealer 2 miles away. And smelling? He could also smell which vehicle the key belonged to, and lead us to the right shed! Now when Sadie and Shadow go sniffing, I just say they are reading their newspaper!
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8.
bjtaylorblog | February 20, 2014 at 6:39 am
Marianne,
Ha ha ha…reading the newspaper!
Wiggles and woofies to you all,
Charlie Bear
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9.
Lynn Smith | February 19, 2014 at 3:02 pm
Hi Charlie Bear!
My mom says I drive her crazy smelling everything, but hey, I AM part Beagle. When we go for walks I have to have my nose to the ground all the time so I can catch up on all the latest goings on in the neighborhood. Kenzie is a pointer so she points her nose up in the air and takes in her news that way. Between the two of us, we pretty much have everything covered! Take care Charlie Bear!
Woofs and wiggles to you!
Your pal,
Jake
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10.
bjtaylorblog | February 19, 2014 at 5:38 pm
Jake,
I smell everything, too, and it drives Mom and Dad Peep nuts. But hey, it’s what we are wired to do, right? Glad you and Kenzie have the world covered!
Wiggles to you,
Charlie Bear
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11.
Julie Garmon | February 19, 2014 at 2:40 pm
I think this is fascinating–and they’re able to sniff out melanoma. Just so amazing!
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12.
bjtaylorblog | February 19, 2014 at 5:37 pm
Julie,
I never heard of a melanoma-sniffing dog but I wouldn’t put it past our species. We are soooo talented!
Wiggles to you,
Charlie Bear
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13.
Carol Nicolet Loewen | February 19, 2014 at 2:37 pm
This is terrific information. I knew our dogs’ noses were much more capable than ours, but didn’t realize it was this significant a difference. Thanks BJ! How about another post on their accelerated hearing?
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14.
bjtaylorblog | February 19, 2014 at 5:37 pm
Carol,
What’s that you say? Huh? lol I’ll have to look up something on accelerated hearing. Not sure if us dogs have better hearing…but I bet we do!
Woofs to you,
Charlie Bear
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