One of the concepts about dogs I find most interesting is their sense of smell. I believe they have an entire bank of knowledge within the confines of their canine noses. It's a bank full of details...most of which humans are unaware. If they could only share.
I always watch the dogs when noses go up--especially when more than one nose rises simultaneously. Today, I imagined myself at the mall, seeing a bunch of people pass by. I think that's equivalent to what dogs do, since researchers think a dogs sense of smell is 1000 times (some reports say a million times) more powerful than that of a human.
Our noses work the same: the olfactory receptors shunt molecules' chemical messages to the brain. What has always fascinated me, however, is the ability for dogs -- and I believe they do this regularly -- to differentiate and categorize the smells. It's not in the detection, for I could probably walk out and smell something in the air.
When dogs sniff, they know stuff. Search and rescue folks know this and often claim dogs use their noses like humans use their eyes. One search and rescuer describes it like this: a human smells popcorn, but a dog smells (and distinguishes between) popcorn, butter, salt, microwave oven, container and can even mix in a time factor.
Here's another fascinating tidbit from search and rescue: Some humans, when given a striking image, will imprint that image on their mind forever. Certainly we all have images locked in our minds that we cannot erase. Scents, to humans, are different. Our brain eliminates sent smells after about 10 to 15 minutes, we don't smell it anymore. We can remember a smell, but it doesn't necessarily stay in our heads. They give an example of bleach. After a while, a person will not smell it--but a dog will smell it forever, as long as it is present, for 5 minutes or 5 years.
Further, researchers know dogs can detect disease. After extensive testing using tissue samples from melanoma and non melanoma patients, dogs could discern the melanoma patient samples 99% of the time.
So I wonder what Olive and Rose were sniffing about outside earlier today? There was something fascinating in the wind!
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