Your Dog's Super Power... Their Nose!
Trudi Sheridan 
In this Blog post we look at the dog's Super Power... their nose and their amazing sense of smell and how important scent and sniffing is for our dogs
How much do you know about your dog’s Super Power?
Here are some fascinating facts about your dog’s nose and their amazing Super Power – their sense of smell.
Puppies are born deaf and blind, but they are born with their noses in working order, using their sense of smell to guide them to their mum’s milk. Puppies’ eyes and ears open later but puppies are born with their Super Power - their sense of smell.
Let’s talk Noses…
The moist area of the dog’s nose around the nostrils is called the Rhinarium. The groove going down the centre is the Philtrum.
The Rhinarium has a unique pattern of dermal ridges on it, have a close look at your dog’s nose. This unique pattern is like the equivalent of a human fingerprint, it’s thought to be unique to each individual dog.
The nose is soft and moist which helps capture odours. You’ll often see your dog lick their nose in order to be able to smell better.
Your dog’s nostrils work independently from each other.
Dogs have a strong right nostril bias… this is the nostril through which they first start sniffing something.
Watch your dog when they’re investigating something new. They may start sniffing with their right nostril. If the scent is familiar to your dog, and they’re not worried by it they will shift to sniffing with the left nostril. If it’s a new smell they’re not sure about, or feels strange or threatening to them they will continue to use only their right nostril.
Your dog is able to breathe in and out through their nose at the same time!
Your dog’s resting respiration rate is about 15 reps per minute. On an on lead walk it goes up to about 30 reps per minute. An off lead run gets your dog’s respiration rate up to about 60 reps. Purposeful sniffing to detect a scent raises your dog’s respiration rate up to 140-200 reps per minute!!!
This means that 15 minutes of actively sniffing for a scent is the equivalent of a 1 hour off lead walk!
Active sniffing stimulates, calms and tires a dog out, and is thought to create positivity and optimism.
The Olfactory System
The olfactory system is the name given to describe the dog’s nose and parts of the brain that are used in their amazing Super Power – their sense of smell.
The part of the dog’s brain that processes scent is called the olfactory bulb and sits at the front of the dog’s brain.
It contains scent receptor cells which translate scents into information. As a puppy grows and matures the number of scent receptor cells increases.
The dog’s olfactory bulb is an incredible 40 times bigger than in humans.
Dogs have up to 300 MILLION scent receptors in their olfactory system… in comparison humans have a paltry 5 or 6 million.
41% of the dog’s brain is given over to their sense of smell.
You could say that dogs smell in 3D, like we humans see in 3D, but comparing human vision to the dog’s nose sees us somewhat lagging behind.
I could probably see something about four football pitches away, OK so it may be a blurry dot but I’d be able to make out that there was something there. A dog could smell something from over 40,000 football pitches away!
It’s no wonder scent is our dogs’ main sense… and we just haven’t a clue!
Why Sniffing is SO Important for Dogs
With this AMAZING sense of smell, it’s easy to see how sniffing is so important for our dogs.
No wonder they don’t want to walk in a straight line, they’d rather zigzag from interesting sniff to interesting sniff!
Our dogs are reading their world through their nose so it’s really important that we give our dogs an outlet for this amazing sense.
Sniffing is incredibly enriching for dogs. Chemical changes are happening in the brain while the dog is sniffing, releasing happy hormones which can calm, stimulate and make the dog feel good.
Sniffing helps our dogs acclimatise to new environments.
Sniffing helps our dogs relax.
Next time you are out with your dog watch your dog sniff… imagine how many different smells and stories are circulating through your dog’s nose and brain.
Instead of rushing your dog along, let them sniff.
Sniffing Vs Scentwork
So what’s the difference between Sniffing and Scentwork
Sniffing is the act of inhaling air through the nose to detect a scent. It’s a natural behaviour that dogs use to explore their environment and to communicate with other dogs.
Scentwork is a training activity that involves teaching dogs to use their amazing sense of smell to find specific scents.
Dogs have been trained as sniffer dogs to work with the police and military for years, sniffing out drugs and explosives.
Medical detection dogs can be trained to detect cancer.
Specialist dogs can be trained to detect low blood sugar levels in people with diabetes and alert them to take insulin; dogs can be trained to detect predictive signs of seizures in people with epilepsy.
Dogs are trained specialist tracking skills to locate people in search and rescue operations. Cadaver dogs are trained to be able to detect dead bodies and blood and assist in forensic searches.
Those are some of the hugely important roles that dogs fulfil in a working capacity, tapping into their amazing sense of smell.
Scentwork – a dog sport
In recent years Scentwork has become a fast growing and popular dog activity or dog sport with Scentwork classes, courses, clubs and competitions happening all over the world.
Which dogs can do Scentwork?
Any dog can do Scentwork!
Scentwork is great for dogs of all breeds, ages, backgrounds and abilities.
Some dogs are naturally better at Scentwork than others. Some breeds are certainly better designed for Scentwork, but any dog is able to have fun learning Scentwork.
There are differences in how quickly some dogs can locate an odour, and how long they are able to do it for.
Some dogs will find some scents and scent tasks easier than others.
A lot of this depends on their head shape and something called the Cephalic index – which is a scale for comparing the width of a dog’s head relative to its length. Dogs with long faces have a low cephalic index; dogs with flat faces have a high cephalic index.
There are three types of dog head shapes:
Bracycephalic – short nose, flat faces – like bulldogs and pugs.
Mesocephalic – intermediate length of skull and nose – breeds such as Beagles, Labradors, Spaniels… mesocephalic breeds are usually the best at Scentwork!
Dolichocephalic – extremely long skulls, slender noses – sighthounds like Greyhounds and Whippets
Different breeds also have different numbers of scent receptor cells, some have more than others.
My two staffie crosses Reggie and Teddy are somewhere on the higher end of the cephalic scale with the flat faced dogs. They are never going get a job at Gatwick Airport or win any National Scentwork competitions but they still LOVE Scentwork and find it hugely rewarding.
It is a great way to provide them with exercise, mental stimulation and it is incredibly tiring.
15 minutes of search games and they’re sparked out on the sofa for hours.
Rest is Important
When you are doing Scentwork with your dog it’s important that you keep the sessions short and ensure your dog has plenty of breaks.
Scentwork is thirsty work…
As with any training, always make sure your dog has access to a bowl of fresh, clean drinking water. Like training, Scentwork can be thirsty work.
How to get started
You can start some simple Scentwork with your dog by playing scent games with your dog… hiding treats or toys for them to sniff and find.
Make it really easy for your dog to start with. You could start off indoors with a Scavenger Hunt Scentwork activity – hide your dog’s favourite treats in easy to sniff out and find places.
You could use bits out of the recycling bin to hide treats in… cardboard boxes, toilet roll tubes, empty yoghurt pots. As your dog gets good at sniffing out and locating the treats you can make it slightly harder each time.
If you’d like to find out more about doing Scentwork with your dog please get in touch.
Have Fun Training!
Trudi at Completely Mutz Dog Training
