Today I wrote a poem about dogs and our noses.
WHAT? Why would you write a poem about THAT?
Because our sense of smell is SO COOL! Did you know scientists have proven the sense of smell for dogs is AT LEAST ten thousand times more acute than it is for humans? And it may even be more so than that! Some odors we can detect in parts per trillion!
Humans have about 6 million olfactory receptors. Dogs? We have about 300 million.
And our noses are different from yours. You breathe and smell through the same chamber. Us? We have two separate chambers- one for smelling and one that leads air to the lungs. AND we have a second olfactory chamber thanks to an organ we have that you don’t.
That’s why we’re so good at search and rescue. Or sniffing out smugglers. Or finding food in the trash can.
So here is today’s offering. I call it,
Scents and Sensibility
For us dogs, it’s all ‘bout the smell.
With it, there’s much we can tell.
What we sense in our chute
is far more acute,
We can even sniff when you’re unwell!
.
.
Check out this cool article for more info on our noses!
PBS Nova: Dogs’ Dazzling Sense of Smell
Dogpaddling Through Life 
Good poem Rumpy! ONLY THE NOSE KNOWS!!!!
Hugs, Sammy
Very interesting poem, Rumpy! I’ve heard that there are some dogs who smell human who have cancer….which is very special talent of dogs, isn’t it?
I could smell DeDe’s cancer.
Great poem Rumpy and so true…tonight on dusk I took the pups out the front to leave a pee mail…Forrest stood on the porch and had his head turned up right up and his nose working overtime..he walked in a line along the verandah and just kept sniffing…I know we must have had roos very close by..his sense of smell is like nothing I have seen in any dog we have had..we gave him a snake skin that we found that had been shedded(in the backyard…mannnn) and he told us where it went..dribbling all the way..the connection between his scent glands in his nose and mouth hot to trot..bless him I am always in awe of his scent talents 🙂 hugs Fozziemum xx
That’s interesting buddy – we did not know that.
I love your ode to the nose, Rumpy. Imagine when humans had such a nose, they would think twice before they taint the air and the athmospere :o)
The cats here say that nothing smells better than cat butt! They ought to make candles that smell like that!
That’s true they know when you are unwell. My dog hasn’t left my side since I got home from the hospital. I also didn’t know about the two chambers. Cool post. 🙂
Ah yes, the kitty butt sniffer.
Only one of my huskies do this. Lexus. She has a very strange habit of not only sniffing the kitties bum, but (ugh) licking it……again I say ugh! Why, oh why!?! BOL!!! Nasty!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Reblogged this on Drabarni's Drom Romani and commented:
One of my favorites since I share a love of dogs with http://rumpydog.com/2014/05/01/scents-and-sensibility/
I especially liked the last line of the poem about sniffing out illness. Here’s a link to my article in my blog that you might like (Dogs are Herbalsts Too) : http://dromromani.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/286/
Love the photos and the poem!
BJ can smell Greenies through the plastic wrap, the heavy cardboard box and through the glass jar I keep them in. Their sensitivity to smell is one of the reasons researchers are using dogs for detecting medical issues.
Good post.
Very true, Rumpy, ya’ll furry geniuses have remarkable sniffing capability. You can sniff out cancer even before it shows up on lab tests. Very impressive. Love your poem. wag wag
Amazing .. Great info!
What a wonderful ode to the sniffer. Well done, R.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Yep Rumpy yous sniffew is purretty pawsum. And dat gwavy lovews der is meowsy gweat tu. MOL But da kittys behind?? OMC Rumpy, find sum roses instead. MOL Hav a Pawsum day!! 😀
Luv and Hugs and Kitty Kisses ♥♥♥
Dezi
Great poem. Mummy says whee guinea pigs have better senses of smell than hoomans but whee are not quite as good as doggies! 🙂
Nacho, Noah, Buddy & Basil
xxxx
I’ve seen recent research that suggests humans–while way behind dogs–have much better sense of smell than we thought. I’ve started to sniff some of the things that attract Honey out of curiosity.
One of my favorite things to do is to toss a treat on the ground and watch Honey sniff its path, every bounce, until she nails it down. But I would never have thought to write a poem about it. 🙂
Excellent poem! And I think about those dogs who can predict seizures in humans, based on the human’s smell. How cool is that!
Our noses sure are fab!
funny face !!!!
Goes to my basic contention that it’s a stinky world 🙂
6 million to 300 million – a nose that’s 50-times more powerful than ours is something to boast about. Cool poem too.