Eyes, Ears and Nose – How Do Dogs Sense the World?

What Is a Dog’s Most Important Sense?

Have you ever wondered how your dog perceives the world? This article will shed some light on how your dog hears, sees, and smells the world he lives in.

How Do Dogs Hear?

Dogs seem to have magical skills when it comes to detecting a coveted snack. Dogs are born with a knack for hearing high-pitched sounds. Opening a bag falls into that sound category, suggests Christine Zink, author of the book Healthcare & Nutrition for Dummies. Over time, dogs may gradually lose their ability to hear lower-pitched noises, but they retain their high-pitched hearing. If you want to get an older dog’s attention, Zink, therefore, advises that you try speaking louder and/or using a higher-pitched voice.

As well as being able to hear high pitched sounds, a dog’s ears can pick up sounds from far away. Dogs can move each ear independently to enable them to locate which direction sounds are coming from. They can do this because they have around 18 muscles in each ear! Some dog breeds are considered to have better hearing than others; Labrador Retrievers, Poodles, Golden Retrievers, and Cocker Spaniels have excellent hearing abilities. 

Is A Dog’s Hearing Better Than Humans?

Dogs in general, however, have much better hearing than we humans do. Dogs can hear nearly twice the number of frequencies than we can. Young humans can hear sounds up to 20,000Hz (20,000 vibrations per second), whereas dogs can hear sounds up to 50,000Hz (50,000 vibrations per second).

According to Morgan Spector, author of Clicker Training for Obedience: Shaping Top Performance – Positively, your dog’s hearing is 12 times more acute than yours. Even dogs with some hearing loss can detect a cellophane bag opening a quarter of a mile away! 

How Far Can a Dog Hear?

An average dog can hear sounds that we cannot hear past 100 yards. Dogs can hear sounds (as we do), at four times the distance away. So, for example, the level we can hear something when we are standing 20 feet away, a dog can hear at that same level 80 feet away.

Is A Dog’s Hearing Better Than a Cat’s?

When it comes to hearing, cats beat dogs paws down. While a dog can hear sounds up to 50,000Hz (50,000 vibrations per second), a cat can hear up to 60,000Hz (60,000 vibrations per second). Cats also can rotate their ears up to 180 degrees, which helps them to precisely locate the direction a sound is coming from.

Additionally, your dog has a keen nose. When you add that adept sense of smell to your dog’s powerful sense of hearing, it’s no wonder that dogs, even senior ones with some hearing loss, can make a beeline for potential snacks.

How Do Dog’s Smell?

According to Bash Dibra, the noted animal behaviorist and author of DogSpeak (Fireside), “A dog’s sense of smell is so acute because dogs have at least 25 times more olfactory receptors, and 40 times the smelling brainpower, than humans. “A dog’s nose can even distinguish between the cheese, meat, and ketchup on a cheeseburger. As you already know, some dogs are trained to use this smelling skill for good, for rescue or drug tracking, and bomb-detection work.

Why Is a Dog’s Sense of Smell So Important?

Of course, sniffing the sidewalk, the fire hydrant, and other dogs may seem pointless to you, but it provides a wealth of information to your dog. Dogs need to know, and smelling is how they learn. Smells is how they process their environment and who is (or has been) in it. “Dogs smell each other and their secretions to monitor physiological and emotional changes,” says Dibra. “It’s like getting the morning paper or a hot-off-the-press tabloid.”

Allowing your dog the time to sniff while out on your daily walk gives your dog great pleasure and enables them to make sense of what is going on. Potentially helping an anxious dog feel more secure.

Which Dog’s Have the Best Sense of Smell?

If you are looking for a dog with a strong scent tracking ability, you can’t go past a Bloodhound. These dogs are built to track and will do so until they have found their quarry. Other breeds are known for an acute sense of smell and include; Basset Hound, Labrador Retriever, Beagle, German Shepherd, and Black and Tan Coonhound.

How Far Can a Dog Smell?

According to Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside a Dog, a dog’s sense of smell is so strong that they can detect “a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water, or two Olympic-sized pools worth.” 

The distance a dog can smell depends on factors such as the type of scent and wind direction. Don’t be surprised if your dog can pick up a smell that is up to 20 miles away!

Is your dog like a shopaholic at a rummage sale, smelling anything and everything that comes it’s way? You are not alone. As every dog knows, the best way to get the scoop on anything is through its nose.

How Can I Stop My Dog Sniffing Everything?

If sniffing becomes excessive for your dog, try these strategies to simmer down its snout.

• Offer a diversion, like a chew toy or a treat that has a scent your dog loves.
• Teach your dog to use the crate, especially if sniffing visitors is of high entertainment value.
• Clap your hands and take charge of your leash when your dog sniffs other dogs inappropriately or excessively.
• Give your dog plenty of exercise and attention.

Your dog’s sense of smell is a powerful and useful tool for the animal. Its sniffing and whiffing ways are simply a part of its nature.

How Do Dogs See?

This morning, while Riker (my four-year-old Australian Shepherd) and I walked around the Oceanside Harbor, I saw his nose twitch and his head swivel. He had caught the scent of something and was trying to find it. His nostrils flared, and he inhaled deeply, bringing more air in as he processed the scent. It only took him seconds to pinpoint the gray ground squirrel’s location perched on a large stone near the sidewalk ahead of us. As Riker stared and sniffed, the squirrel froze for a few seconds, hoping to avoid detection, then dashed off the stone and into a burrow underneath. Riker, on a leash, couldn’t run after the squirrel, but he sure wanted to!

I enjoy watching Riker on our walks. He sees and smells a much different world than I do. I see the boats on the water and the seagulls flying overhead at the harbor, and I smell the sea air. But watching Riker’s reactions enables me to see so much more.

What Does a Dog’s Vision Look Like?

Dogs see very differently than we do. Although the ability to see can vary from dog to dog, just as it does with people, most dogs are near-sighted compared to us. Testing dogs’ ability to see is challenging, but most experts agree that most dogs see well close up, but their vision fades about a quarter-mile away. So a squirrel 12 feet away is very clear, but a seagull flying out over the ocean is probably not visible.

Dogs’ vision can detect movement much more than ours is. We can see and recognize a squirrel sitting still on a rock, but most dogs recognize the squirrel once it dashes away. That’s why once spotted most prey animals will freeze (hold still in place).

Can Dogs See in Color?

So while dogs are highly equipped to see moving prey, how good are they at seeing colors? As it turns out, dogs do not see color as well as we do. A dog’s ability to see color has been likened to a human who has red-green color blindness – which means that they cannot distinguish between the colors red and green.

It isn’t so important for dogs to see the world in color, as it is to detect movement and see in the dark.

Can Dogs See in the Dark?

Yes, dogs can see in the dark, well better than a human can anyway. Dogs can see in light that is up to five times dimmer than what a human can. Couple this with the ability to detect movement makes dogs efficient nocturnal hunters.

Dogs’ eyes are well equipped to see in the dark as they have large pupils to let in more light and more light-sensitive cells in their eyes.

It’s a Dog’s Perspective

Dogs also see the world from a different perspective. Lie down on the ground and position yourself so that your eyes are at the same level as your dog’s eyes. Now, look around. What do you see? Changes in the ground, mounds, and gullies seem both deeper and taller. Street curbs even appear different. Riker’s eyes are 18 inches off the ground when he’s relaxed, and at that height, I stare into bushes instead of down on them. A retaining wall seems much more formidable, and a park bench looks like a barricade rather than someplace to relax. It’s a different world.