How Dogs Can See Through Their Noses

For us, the view is essential. If a person becomes blind, we are deeply moved and compassionate, as we realize their limitations. This is because, a priori, human beings are almost “olfactory illiterate”, especially if we compare our poor sense of smell to that of the canine. It is that, dogs see through their noses.

How is? or how is it explained? It is explained through the concept “olfactory image”. Dogs have a sense of smell a million times greater than humans. A million, not two, not three, not five.

Because? Because its olfactory surface, the one inside the muzzle, is equal to the body surface. But also, for every square centimeter, they have four times as many cells as we human beings. And, for each cell, six times more eyelashes or hairs which are the olfactory receptors.

But, in addition, they have a very particular quality: discriminate the smell. In other words, if a dog walks past a house where he pouts, he does not only smell the pout, he smells of corn, he smells of red chorizo, meat, leek, he puts it in pairs, he put it in three, it smells like four, it smells pout if you want, you put it in a library and you take it out of this library when you want.

Take the test to remember a smell and you will find that you do not remember it. Thus, dogs see by smell. This is why when they are dogs, in addition to loving them at this point, we sometimes find it difficult to follow them. It’s that puppies destroy, annihilate objects, eat our stockings, shoes and hats and therefore exhaust us.

The reason why a dog prefers these pieces of our outfit It resides in the finesse of its sense of smell, in its ability to discriminate odors and in the prodigious memory that after classifying it, it performs on the aromas of the environment and its affections.

Many puppies steal shoes or slippers and take them to their kennels to quietly and conscientiously chew. This robot It is not only a playful action, but it has a very deep meaning that should not be underestimated.

All opinions agree that it is a gesture of love, which, due to the highly developed sense of smell of dogs, leads them to “appropriate” the rooms that most concentrate the smell of their human guardian to have him, in this way, as close as possible. That’s why he steals these clothes that allow him to establish a special connectionvery close, with us and by smell.

Through the physical approach of any of our clothes, the dog, and especially the puppy, tells us that he wants to be with us and our scent, establishing a solid, lasting and stable bridge.

In all my professional life I have not seen a single dog who has lost his sense of smell, it’s a fantasy. Anosmia or hyposmia in dogs is very rare.

However, the human being has it and you hardly notice it. COVID or COVID has given us the pattern of a disease with loss of smell, which in turn leads to loss of taste.

But, in the case of the dog, firstly that he does not suffer from COVID like we do, he cannot catch this disease, but also he cannot lose it naturally. Because? Because if I lost it, it would be almost absolute vulnerability.

*Prof Dr Juan Enrique Romero @drromerook is a veterinarian. University education specialist. Master in Psychoimmunoneuroendocrinology. Former director of the Hospital Escuela de Animales Pequeños (UNLPam). University professor in various Argentine universities. International speaker.

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