If a Nose Could Talk!

Every pet owner, especially one who owns or has ever owned a canine should watch this amazing 4 minute Ted Talk video, How do dogs see with their noses?  by Alexandra Horowitz.  The graphics are not only charming but also educational allowing  a non-scientifically minded person like me to comprehend the complex makeup of the dog's ability to navigate the world through his/her nose's "moist, spongy outside which  captures any scents the breeze carries" and more.

Zoe's amazing nose!

Here are some interesting facts:

•  A dog can smell separately with each nostril.
• By smelling in stereo, and SNIFFING,  she can determine the direction of the smell's source, what is out there and it's location.
• When air enters a dog's nose, it is divided by a tissue in the nose into two chambers - one for breathing and one for smelling.
• In the smelling chamber, there are "several hundred million olfactory receptor cells compared to a human's five million".
• Humans breathe in and out through the same passage; dogs exhale through slits in the side of their nose, "creating swirls of air to draw in new molecules...allowing odor concentration to build up over multiple sniffs."

  

  Let me tell you, mom, there's more to this freesia than you know!

  The dog's brain also has an olfactory system that is far greater in size proportionally to its brain in comparison to the human brain's olfactory system.  Imagine this. Someone spritzes a spray of cologne in a small room.  You and I could smell and most likely distinguish it.  A dog would have no problem if the same exact spritz  were sprayed in an enclosed stadium. She could not only distinguish the smell but its components.

Here is what I found most interesting having two therapy dogs who seem to know which patient or resident needs them. The vomernasal organ (for the more medical version) located above the roof of the mouth detects hormones of animals and humans. In the animal kingdom it can determine hostile and friendly animals and  help in mating; in the human world it can read a human's emotional state and even tell when someone is pregnant or sick.

If a dog's nose could talk, oh the 'tails' it could tell as it revealed a whole world beyond our eyes.