Dog Smell
Although dogs vary in their ability to smell, they all possess extremel keen noses. In fact, smell is the most highly developed sense in domestic and wild dogs. While age, diet and environment may affect the sscenting skill of a single dog or breed, a dog’s sense of smell is, on average, about one million times more sensitive than our own.
Dogs can detect and distinguish among millions of different smells. They also retain a strong memory of each smell, including the unique scent of each animal they encounter. They can follow trails over long distances and detect every faint concentrations of a scent. They use smell to identify territory, the location o of objects, other animals and even the mood of creatures they encounter.
The canine nose is long and large, offering plenty of room for smells to be colleted, sensed and sorted. The inside piece of the nose that detects odor molecules in the air ir about twenty sqyare inches in size, compared with a mere half inch in humans. Thin bones help draw molecules of smell over this area, while a wet nose attracts and dissolves molecules from the air.
Humans have taken advantage of this remarkable skill by using dogs to trail and track missing people and objects, and to hunt game.