A Dog's Nose Rules - A Response to Ecotrain's QOTW...
We have a fun question posed this week for @ecotrain
What's the smartest thing you've seen an animal do?
We have been owners of German Shepard dogs (known for their intelligence) for many years and have had some wonderful dogs!
What always fascinates me with dogs is their keen sense of smell!
Bruno Taking In All The Scents
They interpret the world through their sense of smell and it's estimated they can smell anywhere from 10,000 - 100,000 better that us humans! Which figures, when they have 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses and we only have about six million.
Their world really is different than ours and I wonder what type of pictures all those scents would make in their brains.
We were fortunate to have a German Shepard dog fully trained in Schutzhund. The Schutzhund training consists of three phases: tracking, obedience, and protection. Our dog had been trained for search and rescue, although he was retired when we got him. It amazes me that dogs can find people or things from the tiniest bit of scent and how they can distinguish between such array of smells!
Here is an amazing dog who can track a scent in water. He was used to detect bodies of drowning victims -
We also had a local kennel that trained dogs to detect cancer. With their highly sensitive sense of smell they can be trained to pick up the odor signatures of different types of cancer!
Other service dogs are trained to detect seizures in people. This is again thanks to their incredible sense of smell for people having seizures give off a certain odor.
How beneficial service dogs have been to mankind, having saved many lives, made for better quality of life for others, been good companions or protectors!
We had another German Shepard that was very gentle, not an aggressive bone in his body, but there was one time when my husband had taken him to the shop that he picked up on a couple of characters that had walked into the shop with not good intentions. Aiko (that was the name of our dog) lunged at the men (luckily he was on a rope) and the men backed away and left the shop. He has never behaved like that again, always being calm and friendly but I believe he prevented a not so pleasant event from occurring that day.
Our present dog Bruno, has not shown any signs of aggression but I know he'd be right there to protect us if needed, he has so much heart!
No wonder dogs have been called man's best friend!
Do you have any stories to tell about very smart animals? Share them with us at @ecotrains QOTW here
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Each of the 7 dogs over the past 40 years has amazed me in one way or another, individual reactions to a variety of events. None have been officially trained, reactions have always come from deep instinct and love.
Agree wholeheartedly, dogs are a man's best friend.
Loved your post today! Our pup Pepper is now def and his eye sight is terrible, so he relies on his sense of smell more than usual. I just give him the time he needs to sniff first then react.
Sorry to hear about the deafness and sight loss of your dog but it is amazing how they adapt and Pepper is fortunate to have a kind and understanding owner!
:-)
That breed is the most efficient in its olfactory system! I love German shepherds.
Dogs certainly have amazing smelling talents my friend.
We have police service dogs here at the airports that can smell drugs on persons and in their luggage.
Some of their other dogs can smell hidden firearms and ammunition.
The bomb squad also uses dogs to locate the mines.
Professional hunters com over and they use dogs as game trackers. Dogs can also track poachers.
They are indeed man's best friends!
Blessings!