The Nose Knows
If Kai could write a blog, he would write about his nose because he is an expert sniffer. His blog would be something like this…
My nose is my Superpower. It allows me to do so many things with it. My mom's nose is just OK. Hers is fine, but mine is fantastic. She has 12 to 40 million olfactory neurons - specialized cells transmitting information to the brain; I have 220 million to 2 billion (Wink!). Sure, she can smell that burrito right in front of her, but I can smell it a month ago on a bench at the park. Alexandra Horowitz at Barnard College believes dogs can smell time. Yep, my nose lets me travel back in time with precision scenting. With just a few sniffs, I can tell what happened in the past at a specific location. Many search and rescue dogs can do this. This Superpower is detecting one teaspoon of sugar in enough water to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools.
So to all the humans out there, I say, “ Make your dogs Happy, LET’S US, SNIFF !
Check out this video https://youtu.be/Gf4k0VgCQjg
REF: Inside of a dog: what dog sees, smells and knows by Alexandra Horowitz
Being a Dog: Following the Dog into the World of Smell by Alexandra Horowitz
Marc Berkoff knows dog noses. He said, "a dog who has lost its sense of smell is no longer a dog." Wow, he should know. He spent 20 years conducting research on odor-based communication and has written more than 100 articles on the subject.
Not only can my nose detect odors of all kinds, but it can also sense heat. Pretty amazing nose I have.
So next time you walk your dog, make sure you let your dog use its powerful nose. My mom never rushes me because she knows it is good for me to discover and understand the world I live in through my nose. And that world changes every second of the day. Remarkably, I get to use my nose all the time and every day, not just on the walks. My mom calls it "Nosework," and that is the topic for another blog.
Back to Marc Berkoff! He feels that dogs need to sniff, and it is vital for them to use their senses and not suffer from sensory deprivation.
“When it comes to smells, we should let dogs be dogs and not hold them to human standards of propriety. This means we should let them sniff one another to their nose’s content and, for example, we must let their walks be their walks, not ours, as frustrating and challenging as this might be.”
I can gather all kinds of information about a new dog friend and distinguish one human's scent from another with my nose. My ability goes beyond finding lost kibbles under the couch, and I do this a lot. I often find my food tossed on the floor, on a rug, or outside in the grasses. "Find it!" she says. Food bowl? What is that? My air scent is powerful too. When I put my nose up in the air, I can tell what my neighbor Jim is cooking and that my dad is bringing "grandma" over for a visit as he parks the car in the driveway. It is hard to believe I am that good. I can smell cancer, detect drugs, and even find wildlife like whales with some training. I can do search and rescue, and I can do conservation work. Well, I mean my kind, not me, but you catch the drift.
Want to know the secret of my Superpower? My mom's nose only has 5,000,000 olfactory detecting molecules, which are pale compared to my 300,000,000. She has a bigger brain, but a significant percentage of mine is devoted to smell. I live in a scented world. I see with my nose, and she can't. Too many humans, when they work with us dogs, ignore our Superpower. Trust the nose, People!