Pets

TED Ed: Dogs’ Sense of Smell Allows Them to ‘See’

In this great lesson from TED Ed, you’ll learn things you never knew about dogs’ sense of smell. For example:

  • Dogs have 300 million cells devoted to smell, versus a human’s measly five million.
  • In a dog’s brain, the area involved in processing smells – the olfactory bulb – is many times larger than in the human brain.
  • A dog can detect smells at a concentration 100 million times less than what our noses pick up.
  • Nearly every item in a dog’s environment – every bird, insect, and person – has a distinct “odor profile” that a dog can identify, including where it is and even what direction it’s moving.
  • Dogs can smell things we can’t detect, including hormones that all animals release: that’s why a dog can tell if someone is happy or sad or sick or mean, because we release hormones that give off those signals.

Dogs’ Sense of Smell Can Tell the Whole Story

Here’s a wonderful quote from the video: “While we hear or see something in a single moment, a dog smells an entire story from start to finish.” That’s because a dog’s nose can tell where someone has been and what they’ve done, from the residue of all the aromas left over.

Dig Deeper Into Dogs’ Sense of Smell

TED Ed’s “Dig Deeper” section explores so much more, linking to incredible resources. Here are some highlights:

Love learning about dogs? Then check out more on Learning Liftoff about our fine and furry best friend!

Related Articles

Sign up for our newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter and join America’s premier community dedicated to helping students reach their full potential.