Every living thing is a product of evolution. Each species has changed and evolved differently over millions of years. Animals living in the same world as us therefore feel and experience the world in their own way. Dogs, for example, live in a world of smells, and their hearing is more developed than ours. As for colours, they are bad at distinguishing them and therefore live in a greyer world than we do.
Dogs’ sense of smell
Dogs have an extraordinary sense of smell, which they inherited from their ancestors the wolves. A dog’s unique sense of smell is due to its physiology.
The mucous membrane of the nose is responsible for olfactory perception, and is much more sensitive in the dog than in the human. The dog’s olfactory cells cover an average area of 151 square centimetres, compared with 5 square centimetres for an adult human. The dog’s mucous membrane is 0,1 mm thick, whereas for a human this figure is only 0,006 mm.
Humans have about five million sensory neurons that allow them to smell. But this is nothing compared to dogs. A dachshund has about 125 million such neurons, while the shepherd has 220 million. Thoroughbred hounds have one million times more sensory neurons than humans.
The part of the animal’s brain responsible for smell is proportionally larger than in humans. A dog has 40 times more brain cells associated with the olfactory organs than a human. Approximately 10% of a dog’s brain processes information about smells. In humans, only 1%.
Dogs observe their surroundings during their daily walks. They use their nose to analyse what was here yesterday. Therefore, there is no need to pull the dog if it stops to sniff – it receives important information and processes it.
dog hearing
Dogs have very good hearing by nature – about 15 times sharper than ours. An adult human ear can hear sounds between 16 Hz and 20 kHz. A dog can hear ultrasound up to 40 kHz and infrasound below 16 Hz.
The muscles that move the ears allow the dog to determine the direction of the sound source with 99% accuracy. in this case, the human probably loses to the dogui.
dog vision
Canine vision is third order in perceiving the world, unlike humans. The ability to see short distances is lower than in humans. Dogs react mainly to movements, and even at a distance can see them very well.
The visual acuity is 7-100 metres (at long distances, a dog cannot recognise its owner if he is standing still); but a moving object can be recognised by a dog up to 1000 metres. If a person is moving, walking, the dog will not only see him at a great distance, it will even be able to determine whether he is his own or a stranger.
At dusk and in the dark, dogs can see 3-4 times better than humans. Their angle of vision is wider than ours and light is reflected in the retina. Dogs have more light-sensitive cells than humans.
Dogs’ sense of taste
The sense of taste in dogs is also very well developed. Only a dog’s sense of taste is very different from a human’s – every dog breeder knows about pets’ taste for carrion, excrement and other stinky products.
On the other hand, dogs often