Why do dogs sniff everything?

How do we know?

↻ One of the pages with a moving picture

A scientist scanned a dog’s nose and built a computer model.

1. When a dog sniffs, a fold inside its nose splits the air. About 12% goes to a special smelling area.
2. That area has up to 300 million smell detectors. People have about six million!
3. The dog breathes out through side slits in its nose, so fresh smells keep flowing in.
4. All this makes a dog’s sense of smell 10,000 to 100,000 times sharper than ours.

A scientist used MRI scans of a dog’s nose to build a computer model. It showed the sniffed air splitting into two paths.

Dogs put their noses to work. In 1984 the “Beagle Brigade” began at Los Angeles airport with one beagle, sniffing bags for fruit and meat.

A beagle can check a suitcase in just seconds.

Wow number

1 teaspoon A dog could smell one teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water. That’s about two Olympic-size pools!

Myth or fact?

A beagle can check a suitcase in just seconds. Fact. Airport beagles sniff for fruit and meat.

Dogs have fewer smell detectors than people. Myth. They have up to 300 million; we have about six million.

Think about it

What do you think a dog finds out by sniffing a tree on a walk?

Where in the world?

Los Angeles airport, California, USA where, in 1984, the “Beagle Brigade” began with one beagle, sniffing bags for fruit and meat — 33.9416° N, 118.4085° W.

Where these facts come from

Every number on page 53, and who measured it

Has this changed?

How a dog’s nose works is not going to change.

Scientists keep studying it with new tools, like the MRI scans that showed the air splitting into two paths.

Words from this page

smell detector

A tiny cell in the nose that catches smells.

MRI

A scan that takes pictures of the inside of a body without cutting it open.

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