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Image: Close up of a dog nose with eyes looking up

Your Dog is Traveling Through Time… With Their Nose! 

Our sniffer is nothing compared to the one that belongs to our four-legged friends. In the same way that we use our eyes, dogs use their noses. It’s how they “see” the world in detail. And even cooler, it gives them an ability we can only wish to master: they can see through time! So what exactly is making the dogs sense of smell so great?

Now, that’s something to think about the next time your dog smells a tree, isn’t it? That trunk holds messages from the past! Let’s head off to dive into the world of the cutest snoots around to see what else we can discover.

Image: Close up of a dog nose with eyes looking up
This one belongs to Barlow. He lives with the kind person who developed our website, Tanner McCuin.
You can see more of Barlow and his brother, Huck, on their Instagram!

“If you make the analogy to vision, what you and I can see at a third of a mile, a dog could see more than 3,000 miles away and still see as well.”

— James Walker, former director of the Sensory Research Institute at Florida State University 1

It’s no secret that dogs are amazing creatures and awesome friends to us. They can help us when we need to transport life-saving medications, assist us in exploring the world, are wonderful companions, and can even detect health problems happening inside of our bodies.

To find out how they’re physically capable of doing this, we turn to one of our favorite channels, Deep Look. In our featured video, they’re bringing us inside of the dogs head to really understand how their bodies are capable of deciphering the scents of the world in impressive detail!

Via: Deep Look 2

See more great content from Deep Look over on their channel and by following them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

Where our senses (and even technology) fall short, dogs pick up the slack. Which, really isn’t surprising considering it could be said that we have been evolving with them next to us for tens of thousands of years! 3

If you’d like to sniff out more information about how exactly these super smellers can be trained to detect certain odors, this article from the Smithsonian gives us a wonderful overview. They take a look at a group of SADs (Seizure-Alert Dogs) and let us in on how they’ve been trained to detect the minuscule chemicals our bodies release during and before a seizure, why their noses are so amazing, and how they hope to bring these skills into the tech world.

This following article from our library helps us look even closer at these SADs! You’ll find real-life accounts of the impact these detection dogs have had on the peoples quality of life — especially considering they can detect when a seizure will occur 40 minutes before it actually does. (Remember that bit about seeing through time? Yeah, apparently the future is also on their radar.)

The other creatures we share this world with are awesome. They’re capable of so much! And the more that we’re able to team up with them, the healthier we all can be.

“If I could be half the person my dog is, I’d be twice the human I am.”

― Charles Yu

There’s a multitude of examples of these sorts of partnerships, and we created a circle of our articles about them to for you to explore!

A Funny-Looking Clam That’s Saving Communities!

Can a clam help keep a culture alive? The impact the geoduck has had on the communities of the American Northwest goes even further, bringing together culinary experts, conservationists, and pallets around the globe! This intriguing mollusk is way more than just a delicacy on your plate!

Read Article Watch Video Listen to Podcast
All Hail the Great Hellbender Salamander!

Snot otter, lasagna lizard, grampus, whatever you call it, this gigantic, slimy, and loveable creature could be the unlikely superhero saving the world’s amphibians. How, you ask? Well, let’s get to know them a little better and find out!

Read Article Watch Video Listen to Podcast
Bugs Raining from the Sky?! They’re Strawberry Superheroes!

Do you like strawberries? You have a little red bug to thank for their safety! Each year, millions of crops (including strawberries) are under threat of being destroyed by spider mites. But farmers and scientists have once again teamed up with nature to solve the problem. Here’s the story of persimilis—a surprising hero on the agricultural stage!

Read Article Watch Video Listen to Podcast

Stay open to new possibilities!

  • Sam

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” — Albert Einstein 

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Notes:

  1. Tyson, Peter. “Dogs’ Dazzling Sense of Smell.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 4 Oct. 2012, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/dogs-sense-of-smell/. Accessed 25 June 2019.
  2. Deep Look. “How Your Dog’s Nose Knows So Much | Deep Look.” YouTube, Deep Look, 26 Feb. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf4k0VgCQjg&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 25 June 2019.
  3. Ghose, Tia. “Dogs and Humans Evolved Together, Study Suggests.” LiveScience, Purch, 14 May 2013, www.livescience.com/31997-dogs-and-humans-evolved-together.html. Accessed 25 June 2019.
Image: Samantha Burns

Sam Burns

Former Editor-In-Chief

Sam wrote and edited hundreds of articles during her time on the Goodness Exchange team from 2016-2021. She wrote about topics from the wonders of nature to the organizations changing the world and the simple joys in life! Outside of the Goodness Exchange, she’s a part-time printmaker, collector of knick-knacks, and procurer of cheeses.

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