Skip to content
King County Search Dogs
  • Home
    • FAQ
    • Latest News
  • WHAT We Do
    • Airscent Search
    • Trailing Search
    • Specialty Search
    • Public Education
  • WHO We Are
    • Team Members
    • Photo Gallery
    • History & Governance
    • Notes
  • YOU Can Help
    • Stay Safe
    • Donate
    • Contact Us
King County Search Dogs

KCSD Member Profile

Why Single Page is blank?  Documentation.

News & Announcements

  • Go Jet Go !
  • Ready to go!
  • Congrats Josh and Natick!
  • Search Dogs Save Lives!
  • Dog Kisses ♥︎♥︎
  • Who’s a good dog?
  • Want to be a Search Dog?
  • Meet the Crew: German Shepherd Edition!
Did You Know?

How dogs use scent to find us? Research suggests we all produce a unique set of smells as we breathe, sweat and shed skin cells (up to 40,000 per minute). We all leave behind an olfactory cloud of chemicals, debris and the microbial biome that inhabits our skin as we walk. Our genetics and lifestyle both contribute to our unique olfactory footprint such that dogs can even distinguish between identical twins! Trailing dogs discriminate between people based on our unique chemical signatures; combinations of volatile chemicals we emit and microbial breakdown of the cells we shed. Airscent and avalanche dogs use the same process but are taught to search for the common ‘human’ smells rather than a subject’s unique smell.

Almost 1/8 of a dog's brain and over half of its internal nose is committed to smelling.  Humans, on the other hand, only have about a square inch of their internal nose dedicated to the sense of smell.  While the degree varies between breeds and the individual dog, it is thought that the dog's ability to smell is between 10x-100x greater than man's ability to smell!

Did You Know??

A dog’s sense of smell is estimated to be over a thousand times better than a human’s. Depending on the breed, dogs have 250,000,000 olfactory receptor cells attached to highly convoluted epithelium in their nasal cavity. It is estimated that the total surface area of the primary dog olfactory region is about one square foot! As much as 30% of a dog’s brain is devoted to detecting and analyzing smells; proportionally 40 times more than people. Dogs can even detect differences in scent concentration between their two nostrils allowing them to determine the direction from which a smell is coming!

Did You Know ??

Dogs also have a second, smaller olfactory chamber called the vomeronasal organ that is 'wired' directly to the amygdala and the hypothalamus thus stimulating the autonomic nervous system (good to remember for your next trivia contest or cocktail party.) This is used to detect pheromones and other ‘communications’ when a dog sniffs another dog or a fire hydrant and can generate quick aggression or mating behaviors in the same way epinephrin causes a ‘fight or flight’ response in humans. Many mammals, including dogs, cock their heads or purse their lips in a characteristic fashion when using the VMO.

Did You Know ??

Dog noses are designed for smelling! Dogs split incoming air between the lungs and the nasal cavity and the slits at the side of a dog’s nose can be used to exhale. So air can enter through the nostrils and leave through the slits giving dogs the ability to sample a continuous flow of air.

dog-nose-closeup

Follow KCSD on:

KCSD Home Page | FAQ | News

WHAT we do | Airscent | Trailing | Specialty | Education

WHO we are | Dogs | Photos | History | Notes

YOU can help | Stay Safe | Donate | Contact us

Member Services

Donate

King County Search Dogs
PO Box 50643, Bellevue, WA 98015
Creative Commons License

Call 911 if you have a search emergency