Are You Smarter Than A Tortus?

April 14, 2010

Human beings are visual creatures, but dogs live by their sense of smell. For that reason, the olfactory cortex of dogs is 40 times the size of that of humans, with 125 to 220 million smell-sensitive receptors. Bloodhounds in particular have super smelling sense, with nearly 300 million receptors.

Dogs’ amazing scent ability may have contributed to the survival of the human race. With their innate social nature, primitive dogs learned to approach early humans and beg for scraps around the campfire, leading the way for domestication. And in turn, dogs helped man sniff out prey while hunting. A win-win situation!

You may have wondered how dogs are trained to sniff out drugs and explosives, since they smell nothing like bacon or steak or anything else a dog might like to hunt down. The fact is that trainers commonly scent a towel or tug toy with drugs or explosive chemicals and then teach the dogs to sniff out the object. Once the dog finds the item, they are treated to a game of tug-o-war with the trainer. Drug-sniffing dogs typically use what’s called an ‘aggressive alert’ and will dig and paw when they find what they’re looking for. Explosives, on the other hand, need to be handled with care and dogs are trained to simply sit down and be still when they find them. Good dog!

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