Nose Knows

Nose to the ground, nose to the shrub, nose to a blade of grass; so often my view of Nicholai is a view from behind while he does what dogs do best – examine the world by nose.

One day in my office – where I provide chiropractic care to dogs and cats – an elderly dog with an undiagnosed malaise came for an appointment. While I could no more diagnose the mysterious disease than the numerous veterinarians who had consulted, I could provide improved comfort and quality of life. After his adjustment the old dog left with his people and more dogs appeared for their scheduled visits. Each dog entered the treatment room, took a single sniff, and proceeded to investigate the room with an intensity of concentration I seldom observed. Noses to the floor with snuffles in full gear, any concerns about the appointment and our human agenda suddenly evaporated, the dogs probed for clues to understand the baffling aroma lingering in the room.

Three or four dogs later, a sudden dawn of realization hit me, making the small hairs on my neck prickle. In that moment, I knew that if I only had the method to ask them, each of these canines could easily explain the mystery malaise of the first dog. The intensity of their expressions and their single-minded focus on scent exploration left me certain that these simple pet dogs were master diagnosticians through the strength of their superior olfactory systems.

Dogs have an enlarged olfactory center in their brains with over 200 million scent receptors, compared to a paltry 5 million for us humans. Their noses contain an intricate scrollwork of nasal folds which stretched out would cover the area of a sheet of 8½ X 11 paper, whereas ours would cover a postage stamp. Estimates of dogs' scent detection and interpretation skills range from a thousand to ten thousand times greater than ours.

These are some of the things dogs can perceive via their sense of smell.

• Chemicals in solution at 1 -2 parts per trillion (the equivalent of 1 bad apple in 2 billion barrels)
  
• Odors down to 40 feet underground
  
• Insects in the ground or in woodwork such as termites in buildings
  
• Human fingerprints that are a week old
  
• Whether a cow is in heat via her urine
  
• Lung, breast, and other cancers in human breath
  
• Prostate and bladder cancer in a sample of urine
  
• Dogs really can smell fear (via pheromones)
  
  

When I watch Nicholai examining the environment, I know there's nothing for it. I will never understand what he can know via the nose. My sense of smell is rudimentary by comparison.