I learned recently that a dog’s sense of smell is more than 10,000 times more acute than humans’. That’s order of magnitude difference is hard to fathom.
We have about 6 million olfactory receptors, whereas a dog has over 300 million. I thought this would imply that their sense of smell would only be 50x better, but when I asked Claude AI it told me, “The number of olfactory receptors alone doesn’t directly translate to the overall sensitivity of smell. It’s an oversimplification to assume a linear relationship between receptor count and smell acuity.”
A dog can tell so many things through its nose. It can identify individual humans and dogs; including their gender. They can detect health conditions, like if someone has low blood sugar. They can smell emotions and pregnancy. They can tell when there’s a change in the weather, and how long it has been since someone or something has been in the area. It’s really quite mind-blowing.
So next time you’re out on a walk with your furry friend, remember to let em smell.