This week in Pet Care, it’s allergy season and the pollen in the air might not be the only health news, since it could be bothering your pets, who might be suffering because of it. To tell us more on what to look for is Dr. Gary Block, DVM.

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While sight is the predominant sense in humans, in canines the sense of smell is predominant. This isn’t by accident. Canines were designed to possess a dominant sense of smell. While the brain in humans is dominated by a large visual cortex, a dog’s brain is dominated by an olfactory (smell) cortex. Relative to the size of its brain, the olfactory cortex in a dog is forty times greater than that in man.

On account of this, a canine’s sensory world is comprised of many savory and unsavory smells that intermingle and constantly change. Humans are unable to smell the vast majority of these scents. Our sensory world is very different than that of canines.

I have a golden retriever and a beagle. I enjoy baking homemade dog treats for these two dogs. I have observed that when I put out some of these dog treats into our yard, our dogs don’t seek for them by using their eyes. At first glance, it seems a bit odd that, even though the food is in plain sight, my two dogs sniff them out.

Yet, it’s only strange because humans live in such a completely different sensory world. If we were required to find things by smell, we would be almost totally helpless. Without their sense of smell, dogs would be in a similar position. For a dog, it is only natural to use his nose, rather than his eyes, to find food.

The Canine Sense of Smell: More Than Incredible

The reality is that a dog’s ability to smell is around fifty to one hundred times greater than it is in mankind. In fact, dogs can discriminate odors even when they are in solutions almost one hundred million times lower than a human would be able to detect. They can smell the presence of a tiny drop of blood in two gallons of water. The more the air is moving outside, the more scents canines are able to detect.

This winter, I threw out a bread crust on top of the fresh snow for the birds. Because there was plenty of seed in the feeders and more seed spread on the snow, the birds ignored the bread crust. Later, we received over a foot of snow, and so the crust was totally buried. I assumed that some bird had consumed it.

The day after, our pet dog walked by the bird feeders when I let her out to play. Right away, she smelled something, and soon her head was under the snow. I thought perhaps there was some small animal down there. But soon she came back out, happily displaying the bread crust in her teeth. I was amazed that she had instantly caught the scent of the bread crust merely from walking by it. And this was even though it was old and dry and it was buried under a foot or more of snow.

Since that episode, we’ve made a regular game out of it. I hide my dog treats somewhere on our lawn. Then I turn her loose to find them.

Dogs: Man’s Best Friend

It didn’t take mankind very long to value the remarkable canine sense of smell and to make use of it. For example, for several millennia, humans have used dogs to track down prey. In our day, humans have used canines to find missing persons and escaped convicts. A bloodhound and many other canine breeds can follow a human scent although it’s a few days old. Even after it has rained, a dog can follow the scent.

In our day, dogs have been trained to detect illegal drugs and explosives with their amazing noses. A person can place the drugs or explosives in an airtight container with other strong odors all around it. Nevertheless, a drug-sniffing hound will have no trouble pinpointing the illegal contraband.

Sometime in the future, some dog may save your life. It may be your own pet dog. Incredibly, some dogs have even detected cancerous tumors in their owners. So treat your pet dog as a friend. Reward your pet with a good place to live, a nutritious diet, plenty of attention, and lots of dog treats.

The writer, Robert Hamilton, is a pet lover who writes frequently about dogs. He enjoys preparing his own special dog food and dog treats at home. Why not try making some for your own special pet? Mr. Hamilton has posted a number of free recipes for homemade dog biscuits on his website.

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Here’s Kid Rocket (13 y/o) nursing on his favorite blanket, the one grandma made him for Christmas.

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This is Sally mooching in the kitchen (now why would that be?)

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