The Amazing Canine Nose

Dogs are famous for their incredible sense of smell. Scent is how dogs learn and experience the world.  While they can see well, better than us in low light, and they have superior hearing to humans, it is their sense of smell that really sets them apart. It has been estimated that a  canine's sense of smell is anywhere from 50 to 100 times better than ours. Some say its even 1,000 times better.

Scientists describe the difference by explaining that the scent cell in a human nose can cover approximately one square inch, and a dog's scent cells can cover 60 square inches. Scientists say a dog uses 40 times more of his brain analyzing smell than we do. The number of scent cells in a dog's nose depends of the size of the dog and the length of the nose. A human has approximately 5 million scent receptors. A Dachshund has 125 million, a Fox Terrier, 147 million and a Bloodhound has 300 million scent receptors.

The canine sense of smell has  been extremely helpful to humans in many ways. They have been trained to sniff out  drugs, guns, explosives, and people, both dead and alive. More recently, it has been determined that some dogs can be trained to detect a change in people about to experience seizures, high blood pressure, low blood sugar, migraines and even heart attacks.  No one know for sure how a canine can do this but it is thought to be due to a change in body chemistry or metabolism that produces a different smell which a dog can detect.

This ability to detect changes in a person's scent prior to a seizure has allowed many people to lead a much more normal life. One owner described how her trained dog has allowed her to live independently and care for her children. Her dog can warn her approximately 30 minutes before a seizure, so she has time to take care of her kids and put herself in a safe place. The dog gets nervous and paws at his owner and leans on her. He stays with her until the seizure is over. Dogs have different ways of indicating an oncoming health problem, which the owner  must learn  to recognize.

Most recently, small studies have been started to test a dog's ability to detect cancer cells. At this time, testing is only being done with melanoma cancer cells, although studies are beginning on prostate cancer. One reason a dog's sense of smell is so helpful is the fact that they can smell several  layers of scent chemicals.

The hope for scientists is that , one day our canine best friends will be well trained and reliable enough to provide screening for common health  problems among large populations, especially in third world countries where medical resources are very limited.

It is no wonder dogs continue to prove themselves as man's best friend.

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