Does your dog know precisely when it’s time to eat dinner? I know mine do, and even when the clocks change, it doesn’t take them long to figure out the new schedule.
However, it may surprise you that their sense of smell may help them tell time. It seems those powerful noses are even more extraordinary than we thought.
Listen to how dogs use scent in this remarkable way in this March 2 video.
@vspositivelyDogs can tell time just by smelling it! This and more nose facts. #dogs #dog #victoriastilwellpositively #positively #positivelycourses #dogtraining #victoriastilwellacademy #dogtrainingtips #dogtrainingtipsandadvice #positivelydogtraining #dogbehavior #dogbehaviourist #dogbehaviour #itsmeorthedog #victoriastilwell #victoriastilwelldogtraining
Author and celebrity dog trainer Victoria Stillwell gives us a fascinating lesson about dogs’ noses. First, she describes the outer part of our dog’s nose as the “leather.” She says that just like human fingerprints, no two are the same. They are always cold and generally wet because this helps trap molecules and take them in through the nasal cavity using hundreds of tiny hairs called cilia.
Related: New Study Shows Pet Dogs Can ‘Smell’ Neurodegenerative Disease With Impressive Accuracy
In addition, they have a gland on the roof of their mouth known as a Jacobson’s organ (vomeronasal plate). This remarkable organ helps them smell pheromones. While humans do not possess this group of sensory cells, other mammals, amphibians, and reptiles do. Pheromones, she reveals, are chemical messages present in secretions. That’s why dogs sniff each other’s behinds to greet one another; their scent signatures are there. These pheromones can tell whether a dog is male or female, sexual availability, and emotional state. Our dogs also have slits on the sides of their noses, which helps them to take in air and breathe it out at the same time effectively and efficiently. They also have somewhere between 220,000,000 to 1 billion cent receptors, unlike humans, which only have about 6 million. Wow!
How dogs smell time
They use this incredible power in ways we may never have realized. Similar to how certain scents evoke memories for us, this happens for dogs, too. She describes that dogs are smelling the future when they sniff the air. Whereas when they’re sniffing the ground, they are smelling the past. Through this process, she believes they can determine the smell of the air in our home, which changes throughout the day. During the day, she describes that air rises, but it pushes down in the evening. Although heating and air-conditioning can disrupt this flow, she feels dogs can distinguish the time of day based on the placement of the air in our home.
That makes sense. I’ve always thought mine picked up on the sounds and changes in the neighborhood. Using cues like when sprinklers come on or when certain cars drive by helps them ascertain the time of day. I would like to know if the scent of those changes also helps to show them the time.
Because our dogs learn so much from what they smell, she urges us to allow them ample time to sniff while walking. Now that I know how much information they take in, I’ll do my best not to rush mine again.
