| Dogs and humans may share the same
basic senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing, but the
way dogs use their senses are markedly different from the way
humans perceive their surroundings. A
dog's sense of smell is the most refined sense they have. They
can detect smells from skin cells that are several days old,
sniff out drugs hidden in body cavities, detect bombs, smell
bodies buried in rubble or snow, and can even detect the presence
of melanoma. A dog's sense of smell is about 4 times greater
than that of humans. Humans have approximately five million
scent receptors. This pales in comparison to the 200 million
scent receptors located in the nose of a dog.
If you have approached your dog from a distance,
you have surely noticed that the dog looks towards you, may
respond to your voice when you get a bit closer, but still seems
hesitant to come to you until you reach a certain point. This
is because the dog waits until he picks up your scent before
fully trusting that it is indeed you that is coming his direction.
A dog's sense of sight is the one he trusts the least. While
dogs do not distinguish color as well as humans, their ability
to see in darkness is astounding and they are very sensitive
to movements. A dog may not see as clearly as humans, but when
something moves in darkness, a dog will detect it immediately.
Dogs have an incredible sense of hearing compared
to humans. A dog can locate the location of a sound in about
6/100 of a second. A dog's hearing ability encompasses many
more frequencies that that of human beings. The remarkable sense
of hearing combined with an impressive sense of smell is what
makes some dogs excellent guard or protection dogs. Dogs also
have an enhanced sense of touch. Their entire body is covered
with sensitive nerve endings, which could be the reason your
dogs enjoys being petted and touched often.
The sense of taste in dogs is markedly less
sensitive than in a human. A dog gets most of his sense of taste
from smells. In addition to the senses we know, dogs seem to
have a mechanism that allows them to detect changes in weather,
the earth's magnetic field, and even the mood of its master.
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