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!
