Making Sense out of Scent ~ Biweekly Blog #2

Welcome to the EmpowerPups Community Communications.

On a biweekly basis, we'll post a blog and share different stories, insights, and information. In this post we are going to discuss one remarkable feature that makes our canine companions so extraordinary, their sense of smell. It is the dog's nose. It is powerful many times beyond words their ability to scent is so important that it has become extremely valuable is to us.

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The Nose Knows ~ More Than We Realize

Have you ever heard the saying "The nose knows!" There are a number of books that have been written about and entitled with this phrase. Today we want to talk primarily about the canine nose and how it is, to use another phrase, wonderfully made and why that is important for us. To start with there are all kinds of canine noses or snouts. Commonly called the snout, it is the muzzle. Depending on the length of dogs snout, many times determines a dogs scenting capability.

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Nostrils, Nose Prints, and Nature's Design

At the very tip of the snout are two slits, nostrils, for breathing and for scent. The nostrils are important in capturing scent. Watch your dog outside sometime you will see them either with their nose to the ground where they are pulling up scent. Or they may have their head up in the air pulling in scent wafting through the air. Their nostrils are working to uncover scent and pull a scent into their snout. It is great to watch as they have their marvelous scent factory working.

These slits are surrounded by a smooth leathery surface that adds to the dogs ability to capture scent. This patch surrounding the slits, is unique in that we can capture a nose print of the dog from this. One thing that is unique about this patch is that the nose print is individual to each dog, just like our fingerprints. In some countries dogs are registered with their nose print. Biologically know as the nasal planum. It is packed with scent receptors. Many times you will notice that it seems to be wet. That is because, it is wet. When it is wet, it helps the dog capture more scent.

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The Wonders Inside the Snout

What is really is wonderous what goes on inside that snout when they are processing scent. In short, once inside the snout the air breathed in can course in for breathing or for scent processing eventually in the Olfactory system. Humans have around six million olfactory receptors in our nose, that seems like a lot until you compare that with around 300 million for the Bloodhound or the little Beagle with 225 million. A German Shepherd or Retriever can have around 220 million. This is why dogs are used in important areas of our society as working dogs. There are many other factors that add to a dogs scenting ability, but the major part is their olfactory system and the fact that about 40% of the dogs brain is geared for scent.

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Why it Matters ~ Especially for EmpowerPups

Over the years we humans have learned to train and use the ability our dogs carry in their snout to aid us. Whether it is a Bloodhound searching for a lost child, a German Shepherd looking for survivors in a search and rescue mission, or service dog trained to respond to a person's disability, society has found how valuable they are to us. Even today, dogs are trained to scent out cancer in individuals.

For EmpowerPups, we rely heavily on their capability to recognize scent of the chemical changes in an individual. There is a solid reason why we start training our recipients with a puppy at a young age. We are emphatic in our training that we use no harm and no fear in our training methodology. We know that as the dog grows, it learns the chemical structure of its person and even that of family members and can immediately recognize when something is wrong, many times long before their person.

This is ability is extremely important for the dog to become an ADA-compliant service dog. Once we know the dog can and does recognize this, we can train the task necessary to support the health and well-being of that individual.

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In Every Breath, A Bond

The next time you see your dog sniffing the air, or paying particular attention to you, know that something wonderful and beautiful is happening. It is reading the world and you one scent at a time. For us, at EmpowerPups by Hero's Puppy for Life, that scent could be the first signal of a life-changing task, a moment of safety, comfort, or even survival.

It is not just a nose. It is a wonder of nature and biology. And, it is one of the greatest gifts your dog can share with us.

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Let's Hear From You

I’d love to hear what you think about this article. I look forward to reading your thoughts and comments. Hopefully you've enjoyed this short blog, and I’ll be publishing more blogs on a biweekly basis so that we can help you learn more about what we do and learn more about your puppy.

Frank Griggs is the Founder and CEO of EmpowerPups by Hero's Puppy for Life. He is a Certified Advanced Canine Training Professional and Certified Canine Trainer and Behavior Specialist. Contact him at frankgriggs@heropuppyforlife.org