How a Dog Nose

Although underrated, humans have an amazing ability to detect various smells. What animal has the best ability to do this? It depends on how it is measured. Elephants can distinguish the greatest variety of smells, and some other animals may also rate highly. But they have not yet been tested.

Dogs are legendary as trackers of fugitives and missing persons, and their sooper sniffers have been utilized to sniff out cadavers, bombs, drugs, cancer, and even fossils. Now things are getting even more interesting.

Labrador nose, Freeimages / huzzah

Let's pause riding this here trail a mite. People can pick up on smells, and this child thinks that maybe certain abilities have faded over the years since our creation. We smell or otherwise sense something but only have a vague awareness in the backs of our minds. This may be misconstrued as a psychic ability when it was originally something we were created with. Smell could be a big part of that. After all, odors trigger emotions, memories, and all sorts of things. Okay, speculation over. Now forward on our trail again.

In some extremely interesting studies, dogs have been able to determine quite accurately when a person is under stress. (Indeed, it's been said that animals can smell fear, so smelling stress is right in keeping.) Also, a dog works for a power company, smelling oil leaking from cables — underground, through dirt and asphalt. Dogs descended from wolf-like creatures, and wolves probably have an even better sense of smell. Evolutionists cannot explain the origin of olfactory excellence, but it is easily a part of the Master Engineer's design work.

According to Professors Stuart Burgess and Andy McIntosh: “The area in a dog’s nose with scent receptors is more than ten times larger than the equivalent area in humans. A dog also has up to a hundred times more receptors per square centimetre. … The part of the brain that processes smells is forty times larger in a dog than in humans …”.

This is of particular importance for wild dogs (see ‘Smell in the wild’ below) to hunt down their prey. Without their much-needed noses, they wouldn’t be able to sense the world around them nearly as well.

You can read the entire article by digging up "How does your dog smell?"