A big part of understanding your dog is
understanding its senses and accepting that they are indeed different
than humans. Both humans and dogs have the same three senses: sight,
hearing and smelling, however while most humans communicate by hearing,
seeing, and then smelling, dogs primarily communicate by smelling,
seeing and lastly hearing. Dogs also have a universal sense which humans
do not have, where they can feel the energy (emotions) of the other
beings around them.
The statistics below will vary
slightly with different types of breeds, for example a sight hound may
have slightly better vision and a coonhound type of dog may have a
slightly better sense of smell than other types.
Smell
A dog interprets the world predominantly by smell, whereas a human
interprets it by sight. As a human I cannot even imagine what that would
be like to get most of my information from what I smell. This is why a
blind or deaf dog can get along just fine if allowed to be a dog,
given the proper leadership and exercise and their sensory whiskers are
not cut off when they are groomed. While a dog's brain is only
one-tenth the size of a human brain, the part that controls smell is 40
times larger than in humans. A dog’s sense of smell is about 1,000 to
10,000,000 times more sensitive than a human’s (depending on the breed).
A human has about 5 million scent glands, compared to a dog, who has
anywhere from 125 million to 300 million (depending on the breed). Ever
wonder why your dog's nose is wet? The mucus on a dog's nose actually
helps it smell by capturing scent particles. When a dog’s nose is dry
they may lick it to aid them in scent.
When dogs smell something they are not
just registering a smell, they get an entire story. They can smell
pheromone, which is not only found in the urine and fecal, but on the
skin and fur. From this they can tell a lot about another dog or human
including if they are male or female, what they ate, where they have
been, what they have touched, if they are ready to mate, if they have
recently given birth, or had a false pregnancy, and what mood they are
in. They have even been known to smell cancer on people, alerting them
to it and saving their lives. This means when your dog smells another
person, tree that another dog has peed on, pant leg that another dog has
rubbed up against, or chair that someone has sat in, they are actually
reading a story, not just smelling an interesting scent. While a human
will smell something like spaghetti sauce as one smell, a dog smells
each individual ingredient. Unlike humans, dogs can move their nostrils
independently, allowing them to know what direction a smell is coming
from.
A dog can both sniff and breathe.
These are two different functions. Breathing is for air, but when they
sniff with short breaths they actually save some scent that does not get
exhaled. When a dog is overheated and actively panting, its sense of
smell is reduced by as much as 40 percent as it uses the air to cool
itself rather than for smelling.
Puppies have heat sensors in
their noses to help find their mother during the time when their eyes
and ears are closed. These sensors disappear by the time they are
adults.
Vision
Since dogs do not
have a spoken language, their thoughts are more like a sequence of
images, much like a child before it learns to speak.
A
common question among humans is, "Are dogs colorblind?" The answer is
no, not exactly, meaning they do not only see in shades of only black
and white. Studies have shown that dogs see in colors of various shades
of blue and yellow. For example, a rainbow to a dog would be as follows:
dark blue, light blue, light gray, light yellow, dark brownish yellow,
and dark gray.
Purple
and blue are both seen as shades of blue. Greenish-blue is viewed as a
shade of gray. Red is seen as a black or dark gray. Orange, yellow and
green all are seen to a dog as various shades of yellow. This means
that, to a dog, bright orange toys are the same yellowish shade as the
green grass. If you want your dog to clearly see his toys in the green
grass you are better off giving the dog blue toys; if you have orange,
yellow or green toys, the dog will be able to find them with his nose.
Dogs
can see best at dusk and dawn. Their low-light vision is much better
than a human’s, but their overall vision is not better. While a human’s
vision is considered perfect at 20/20, a dog's vision is on average
20/75. Dogs cannot see as well at a distance as a human with normal
eyes. Humans can also see things close up better than a dog can. On
average, a human can see something clearly as close as 7 cm away,
compared to a dog that sees things burry if they are closer than 33 cm
away. Dogs can recognize objects better when they are moving and
sometimes overlook the same object when it is still. Dogs see images on a
TV screen, but most likely also see a rapidly flickering light, almost
like a strobe light, in the picture; a human’s flicker resolution
ability is about 55 Hz and a dog's is about 75 Hz.
Sound
Puppies are born deaf and cannot hear
until they are about 21 days old. Their eyes are also closed. During
this time they rely solely on scent to interpret their world. By the
time their sense of hearing is completely developed they can hear about 4
times the distance of a human who has normal hearing. Dogs can hear
higher pitched sounds that humans cannot hear. They often bark at
vacuums because they hear a very loud annoying pitch to their motors.
Dogs detect sounds in the
frequency range of approximately 67 - 45,000 Hz (varies with different
breeds), compared to humans with the approximate range of 64 - 23,000
Hz. As humans and dogs get older they both lose the ability to hear
certain frequencies.
Dogs have 18 or more muscles in
their ears allowing them to be mobile, whereas a human has only 6 and
can only move their ears slightly, if at all. Dogs with perked ears can
usually hear better than dogs with hanging ears, especially if they can
move their ears in the direction of the sound.
Taste
Canine science believes that dog’s taste
buds are not as developed as of humans. Dogs can only identify taste as
good or bad. Some dogs are not at all picky of the food they eat. Many
dog owners have noticed that their dogs eat just about anything,
irrespective of how it tastes and at times even reported dogs eating
feces of other animals or dogs. No one really knows why, may be for some
additional nutrition requirements which their nose may be identifying.
Well, May be the taste is not important to dogs as it is to fill their
stomach.On the other hand we also have dogs that are very choosy about what they eat and will eat only things that taste good to them, irrespective of how you find the taste to be. Dogs can differentiate between sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty taste. Some dogs really enjoy strong flavors such as onions, raw garlic and sometimes even chili, while others only accept a determined flavor and totally deny trying any other kind.
Touch
The dogs touch may be slightly less or equal to that of humans. Dogs and humans have a similar social structure and it will be safe to assume that touch is as important to dogs as to humans. For dogs it is the most important act of socializing with their family and other dogs. Dogs love to socialize and play and the touch creates the bonding which is required for a social animals.
Energy
Animals can feel energy (in human words, emotions). It is a universal animal language. Have you ever been watching a group of wild animals out in the yard, perhaps a squirrel, rabbit and a deer all eating peacefully? Clearly these animals are not speaking words to one another asking if they all come in peace; somehow they all know that they are not going to harm one another. Or perhaps you know a dog that other dogs do not tend to like, or a cat that likes one dog but not another. Or perhaps you know of a person who dogs are prone to bark at. When I was a kid growing up I had a Lab mix who loved everyone. There was not a single person he didn't like, except for my uncle. When my uncle would come around he would bark at him. I later discovered that many dogs tended to bark at my uncle and as I got older I realized my uncle was a very tense, nervous person.
Written by Sharon Maguire © Dog Breed Info Center
No comments:
Post a Comment