[Dailydrool] what your dog smells

[Sabrina]

I'm reading an interesting book called Inside of a Dog by Alexandra 
Horowitz, who is a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and has been studying 
dogs. Following up on the thread earlier this year about what a dog 
smells, here are some interesting facts from the book (not exact 
quotes): Bloodhounds and Basset Hounds are the superstars of smelling 
because in addition to their large nose area, their ears circulate 
air to expose more scent, drool gathers more liquid to smell; and 
Bassets are naturally close to the ground. Dogs see in scent; they 
have more scent smells (300 million vs. our 6 million) and they smell 
millions of times better than we do. They can smell a teaspoon of 
sugar in 1 million gallons of water (the amount in 2 olympic sized 
pools). We shed molecules that give off scent. When we step, we leave 
scent behind; the scent in a foot impression changes over time. A 
runner may leave 5 footprint impressions in 2 seconds; during those 
two seconds the impressions fades, and with that change the dog can 
tell the difference between earlier and later impressions and 
therefore the direction the person is moving. On a rose bush, every 
petal has a different scent depending on what bugs landed on it, 
whether it is torn or folded, whether it's fresh or old (decay has a 
scent). Scientists put fingerprints on slides and stored them indoors 
for three weeks; the top dog smeller was able to select the slide 
with the fingerprint 294 times out of 300. When the slides were left 
outside in sun and rain for a week, the dog was correct more than 
half the time. In a scientific test, trained dogs detected melanoma, 
missing only 14 out of 1,272. They're being trained to detect other 
diseases (diabetes, other cancers); they've been used to predict 
seizures. When your dog nuzzles you, he (she) is collecting your 
odor. Your dog knows when you have just eaten, when you have 
exercised, when you're emotional by your scent. When your dog appears 
to be staring, watch his nose closely; he's more likely smelling. 
Those flaps on the side of a dog's nose are to expel air so that he 
can push out old air that's already in his nose and efficiently 
exchange it for the fresh scent.

The book is sometimes less interesting, but I thought most of you 
would be fascinated by the info about dogs' noses.

Sabrina, Ellie, Buddy, Hailey; Calhoune and Brendan atb