Pets and Their People

Contributed by: Diane Reser

References: (Puppy Start Right, by Kenneth Martin and Deborah Martin, 2009, 2011)

Did you Know? That Dogs…

“Understand their world by using their senses. Senses affect how our dogs learn and how they communicate, so to better understand them, and their social behavior we need to know how dogs understand their world. Knowing how dogs communicate allows us to have a clearer relationship with them”.

This week lets focus on the dogs ability to smell and taste.“Use multiple communication signals simultaneously to understand their world like scents, body language, and vocal sounds. )

Sense of Smell:

“Nose’s have approximately 250 million receptor cells- compared to humans who have around 5 million cells.They can detect scents between 1-100 million times better than us when detecting certain chemicals.

Sense of smell may be the most powerful and important sense.

Excel at tracking, trailing and scent detection.

Can detect a single fingerprint on a pane of glass after 1 month’s time. They can smell you from across the room, so no need to stick your hand out for them to sniff you!” Sense ofTaste:

“Are most sensitive to sweets.

Prefer new foods.

Like fatty foods. Just like us! (However, in small amounts).

Don’t care for bitter, or sour foods, and most likely will avoid them.

Like of certain foods may be affected by texture, smell, temperature, and taste.

Many studies have suggested dogs prefer cooked meat to raw.

Certain food likes, and dislikes may be learned early in life”.