Dog Versus Human Senses

If you are of the opinion that dogs have superiority over humans in terms of senses, you are certainly not mistaken! Police forces use canines to sniff out drugs and bombs. There have also been reports of dogs having the ability to smell cancer within humans! Of all the senses we have in common with dogs, the biggest difference undoubtedly lies in their sense of smell. However, we also look at other senses where dogs appear to have a distinct advantage.

While humans tend to view the world in terms of sight, dogs do so with their sense of smell. Although a human brain is ten times larger, the part that controls smell is 40 million times larger in dogs! While we have up to five million scent receptors, dogs can have as many as 300 million, though this varies depending on the breed. So in other words, there are certain dog breeds that have a sense of smell that is ten million times stronger than that of humans!

Dogs also have a much larger area of nasal membrane than humans and they gather a huge amount of information about their environment, people, and other animals through scent. This is why they are able to detect illegal drugs, cancerous cells, and explosives so effectively. The mucus on a dog’s nose helps it to capture scent particles. A dog’s nose is so sensitive that it is possible to train them to detect the blood sugar levels of people with diabetes!

Although we associate dogs with exceptional hearing, did you know that puppies are actually born deaf and can’t hear until they are 21 days old? Of course, once their sense of hearing develops, it far surpasses that of a human. In fact, your dog should be able to hear noises from four times the distance of a person with average hearing capabilities.

Dogs can also hear noises at a much higher frequency than humans. While we struggle to hear anything above 23,000 Hertz, dogs can hear noises up to 45,000 Hertz. Interestingly, there is little difference between us at the lower end of the scale. In fact, humans can hear noises as low as 64 Hertz while dogs typically struggle to hear anything below 67 Hertz. Some dogs have as many as 18 muscles in their ears, enabling them to move in the direction of the sound.

Contrary to popular belief, dogs are not strictly colorblind. It has often been assumed that dogs can only see in shades of black and white, but studies have shown that they can also see in shades of yellow and blue. Humans can actually see objects at a distance and up close better than dogs, but canines have an advantage when it comes to seeing things at dawn and at dusk. Studies have also shown that dogs see moving objects more clearly than humans and this helps them to hunt prey.