sense of smell

Dogs have an amazing sense of smell with an amazing 300 million receptors compared to humans' paltry 6 million. This sensational smell advantage makes canines capable of being taught to sniff out some pretty amazing substances. Among those are: One - The remains of murdered or accidentally killed humans - Dogs have been used to help solve crimes, in some instances in cases that had long gone cold. But in an extraordinary feat, dogs were able to find human remains at an archeological site in a Croatian mountain range that was 3000 years old! Two - Cow fertility - Dairy…

Many dog owners who are starting to feel under the weather have had the experience of having their dog curl up next to them as soon as a sniffle starts. Sometimes it seems your dog knows you are getting sick even before you do! But how is this possible? Do dogs have a sixth sense? Not really. But a dog’s sense of smell is so very highly developed that it seems like a sixth sense to us humans.  While six million olfactory receptors in our human noses seems like a lot, dogs have an astounding 300 million receptors in theirs!…

 As a dog lover, you are likely already amazed at how phenomenally well dogs can smell. But as if that wasn’t enough, scientists at Sweden's Lund University, have discovered another remarkable function of your dog’s cold nose, in effect a new sense.  This previously unknown function is heat detection, including weak, radiating heat which could signal the presence of a prey animal. This ability is common to only a few animals known to science: certain species of snakes, black fire beetles and until now, only one species of mammal, the common vampire bat. All of these organisms use this ability…