How Dogs "See" With Their Noses

Morning Sniffers!

Dogs can't see sh*t.

Seriously, look at the difference between human vision and dog vision:

Not only are the colors all messed up…it's super blurry.

But don’t worry.

Dogs don’t just use their eyes to see.

They also see the world through their most powerful sense… smell.

Let me explain.

First, when your dog takes a sniff, each nostril can actually smell the smell separately.

This means they can actually determine not just what the smell is, but where the smell is coming from.

Also, as air enters the dog’s nose, the airflow gets separated into two channels.

One for breathing and one just for smelling.

This second airflow enters a little area I like to call “the sniffing region”

This is because this area is lined with about 300 million of these special “smelling” cells called olfactory receptor cells.

For context, humans only have about 6 million of them.

Not only this, but the “smelling organ” known as the Olfactory Bulb in dogs is WAYYY bigger than ours.

This allows dogs to identify and remember like 100 THOUSAND distinct smells.

At concentrations up to 100 MILLION times less than we can smell.

Let me give you an example:

Imagine you're in a room at a party.

One of the girls on the other side of the room sprays a bit of perfume.

Most likely, you would be able to smell that perfume.

But a dog would have zero trouble smelling that perfume on the other side of an enclosed football stadium.

But one of the coolest things a dog's nose can do…

…is sniff through TIME.

What do I mean by this?

Well, let's say you go out for the day.

First to the beach, then to a family member's house, and finally to the park.

Then, once you return home, your dog would be able to sniff you.

And figure out exactly where you went, and the order you went there.

Crazy right?

They literally see everything around them.

The neighbor putting out the trash, what things are in that trash, every passing person or car, any nearby animals…

Everything with a distinct odor tells your dog:

What it is - where it is - where it's been - and which direction it's moving.

And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING, even things that can't be seen.

Dogs have this whole separate olfactory system, just above the roof of the mouth called the vomeronasal organ.

This thing detects the hormones that all animals, including humans, naturally release.

They use this to identify potential mates and to determine if an animal is friendly or not friendly.

But your dog can also sense if YOU are angry, sad, pregnant, sick, stressed, and even if you have cancer…

All from the tiny invisible pheromones that you naturally give off.

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

If you’re that sexy friend, subscribe here.

‍