Nose

Author: Denise Partlow

Instagram: @modernk9 Carolinas

I am in awe of a dog’s nose. I find it fascinating that they can smell things that we can’t, that they can determine what it is just by sniffing it! Their nose is part of who they are and we should definitely be giving them plenty of opportunities to smell the world.

What I find most fascinating is how dogs can be trained to search for just about anything. Here are some examples of scents that dogs can be trained to alert to when detected:

-drugs
-cancer
–land mines
-bugs (entering from other countries)
-smuggled agricultural products
-environmental contaminants
-derivatives of gasoline
-toxic products at industrial disposal and waste sites
-sea cucumbers being illegally exported from the Galapagos islands
-smuggled ivory and horns removed from elephants and rhinoceros

Dogs can also search for a human scent. In some cases the dog might be given an article of clothing that belonged to the human but for many cases they are not. The dog is trained to understand that they are trying to find “some person”.

Their sense of smell is so powerful that they have been able to detect a person’s scent on a pipe after the pipe had exploded.

They can even find people that have already drowned or were buried under 24 feet of snow since the odor of decomposition rises to the surface.

All dogs are natural hunters, searchers, or trackers, they don’t actually have to be taught to do this-they already know how to smell – they just need to be encouraged and be provided with the right motivation to want to keep playing “the game”. So even if your dog is not a working dog, and doesn’t belong to a search and rescue team, you may be surprised to see what your furry friend can detect. So give it a shot! Provide your dog with opportunities to use that sniffer the way it was meant to be used!

#dogsniff #dognose #doglife #dogwalk#doggame #doglove #dogmom #dogtrainer