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Why do dogs have a great sense of smell?


When you go to the airport, you may often see dogs wandering around. The dogs roam around the airport checking people's luggage for drugs, searching for crime scenes or people, good at finding many missing people in the mountains. This is due to dogs' incredibly excellent sense of smell.


Surprisingly, the nose structures of humans and dogs have a considerable similarities. The human nose mainly consists of the nasal cavity, olfactory nerve, cribriform plate, olfactory bulbs, and olfactory tract.


Nasal Cavity’s function is to humidify, warm, filter, and act as a conduit for inspired air, as well as protect the respiratory tract through the use of the mucociliary system. The olfactory nerve enables one’s olfactory system and sense of smell. The cribriform plate is perforated by olfactory foramina, which allows for the passage of the olfactory nerves to the roof of the nasal cavity. Olfactory bulbs receive information about smells from the nose and send it to the brain by way of the olfactory tracts. The olfactory tract connects the olfactory bulb to multiple areas within the brain's center. 


The structure of a dog's nose is largely divided into nasal turbinates with respiratory epithelium, olfactory bulb, ethmoid turbinates with olfactory epithelium, and vomeronasal organ.


Nasal turbinates with respiratory epithelium have the role of warming and humidifying inspired air and regulating nasal airflows. The olfactory bulb has both a sensory role (initial processing of olfactory information) and a modulatory role in the forebrain, hypothalamus, and limbic system. The ethmoid turbinates with olfactory epithelium have the role of passing along smell sensations to the brain. The Vomeronasal organ influences mating and social behavior.



The difference between the nose structure of dogs and humans is small but important. Dogs have up to a billion smell receptors in their noses, compared to just 5 million smell receptors in people, Johnson said. Therefore, the discovery suggests the sense of smell is much more vital to dogs than previously thought. Smell receptors are substances that give off tiny molecules. Inhaling moves these molecules into your nose, where special cells (olfactory receptors) detect them. The receptors relay this information to your brain through your olfactory nerve and allow you to perceive smell. It also makes different olfactory abilities among long-nosed dogs and short-nosed dogs; the dog which has a large and long nose has better olfactory ability than the dogs whose nose is small and short. 


Dogs can detect cancer cells, explosives, drugs, and track and find lost people or animals - all by using the power of their noses and the part of their brain that analyses and processes those scents. With training, dogs can sniff out bombs and drugs, pursue suspects, and find dead bodies. Increasingly, they're being used experimentally to detect human disease—cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis, and now, malaria—from smell alone. Even considered as one of future cancer treatment methods, dog’s olfactory ability is contributing to a wide range of services for humans.


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