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A Dog's Nose

by David Lockard :: Featured: August, 2003

I always admired qualities in others that I do not have. One of those qualities is a good nose. I guess that is because I do not smell much. I am known for driving past a skunk and being clueless to what everyone is reacting to. My wife on the other hand has compensated for my constantly clogged sinuses with a nose that rivals my beagles.

On day she announced that a mouse had died in the house. Knowing that it was my duty to remove such disgusting finds, I ask her where it was. She said that she had not found it yet. “How do you know it is a mouse?” I asked. “Because it smells like one”, she replied. With her in the lead, off through the house we went searching room to room. It was kind of like being on a hunt but I didn’t bring my shotgun; after all it was already dead. It was when we reached the basement family room that I could tell by her body language that we were hot on the trail. She circled the room a few times and stopped under a ceiling tile where she pointed to one specific tile and said, “that one.” In disbelief I took down the tile and found a dead mouse. It wasn’t like it was very big or even that ripe yet. I must admit that I was totally impressed. It was from that day forward that I begged and pleaded for her to go hunting with me.

Well I never did convince her to go along hunting but I do have a beagle that actually has a nose that will put my wife’s to shame. I know that I am going to be in big trouble if I keep comparing my wife to a dog but other then being not only beautiful and gracious, I am truly impressed by her nose. According to what science is telling us she has about five million scent receptors. A beagle’s nose on the other hand has about 220 million scent receptors. His nose is designed for receiving and trapping odors which to my delight is employed to find rabbits.

Beagle’s noses are so much a focus of their world that we sometimes forget that it is their number one sense and that they define much of the their world by smell. Have you ever noticed that sometimes you approach your dog and realize that he does not even recognize you until he smells you? I recently got a new puppy and the first weeks are always a little worrisome until he adjusts to the new world that he finds himself in. Making frequent checks on his well being in the kennel I would become concerned when I had not heard him after an extended period of time. Not wanting to alert him to my presence I would quietly approached his kennel to see if he was okay. I quickly learned that being seen was sometimes an error that I could get away with but approaching the kennel from upwind would wake him from his sleep and trigger howls for a rescuer.

Beagles have become so useful in their scenting abilities that we now employ them to help inspect imported food products for disease and pests infestation. They help in locating drugs and other contraband. They have been used to located termites in buildings and even cancerous growths in humans, which gave me pause when my puppy kept licking and smelling my big toe. I then remembered that beagles also have an affinity for rolling in manure with which a relationship to my newly freed feet could be made.

With the admiration that I spoke of earlier I am impressed that my dog can detect particles that are diluted beyond that which can be picked up by modern high tech methods. Yet for years we have known that what ever a rabbit leaves behind for a beagle to smell it is not much. The list can include dead cells from off the rabbit’s body, hair, disturbed earth, and vegetation, but most likely all of the above and some that we are not aware of. A beagle can not only detect these things but can determine which way the rabbit was headed and how old the trail is. Just listening to a beagle’s level of excitement increase as the trial becomes fresher, verifies that last fact.

I recently met Bill Irwin, an Appalachian Trail through hiker, who completed the 2,000 plus mile trail from Georgia to Maine alone with his guide dog, Orient. Bill is totally blind with only a limited ability to detect some light intensity from his environment. Guide dogs are trained to help blind people through many urban environments but training for a 2,000 mile journey through the woods is not a part of the course. Orient learned on the job and Bill said that there was a point in his journey that he realized that Orient had learned to followed the white paint marks which designate the trail. When you live so closely with a creature like Orient and learn to depend upon them for an ability which you do not have they become an intimate part of your life and a true friend and helper.

So it is with me and my limited ability to smell. My smelling guide dog does things for me that I can not do myself. He is just a new puppy but he has a good nose. He does not yet have full control over it. If I drop a treat in front of him he still probes around looking for it. He knows it is there, he just hasn’t acquired locating abilities yet. In time he will zero in as well as I do with my eyes but that will take awhile. In the mean time I am getting to know him and he is getting to know me. We are developing trust and learning how to interact with each other. I have been introducing him to children, neighbors, and friends. He has sniffed them all and is becoming a well rounded puppy. We have been playing with a bunny tail in a sock, which has become an item in which he has taken a particular interest.

I have been spending a lot of time with him and he is responding well and I hope that I am training him properly. Sometimes I become concerned that my wife might become jealous but I assured her that when it comes to pointing out mice in the ceiling that beagles are too short and they don’t point.