Walk on the Wild Side: Sniff Like a Dog

People have always admired dogs' super sense of smell. 

That's why we use them for multiple societal tasks, from tracking down lost people, to sniffing out hidden illegal drugs.

They know when we are happy, sad, or sick thanks to their amazing snouts.

(Photo - my dog Mollie gives me backyard tours of things to smell every day.)

Here's a fun fact, dogs have two dedicated, separate routes in their snouts for sniffing and breathing making them natural detectives.

They can use their highly sensitive olfactory organs to locate substances that we never thought had an odor: cancer cells, minute quantities of TNT; three-day old footprint left by a missing person.

Would you like to have a dog's super sniffing power? C'mon don't tell me it wouldn't be interesting. We may not have the same internal snout system, but all is not lost. We already have the equipment, a nose (albeit not as sophisticated as a dog's).

Recently, John McGann, an associate professor at Rutgers, published a review in the journal Science reminding us that human do, after all, have an olfactory bulb. Swedish professor Matthias Laska has extensively demonstrated that in detecting some odors, such as amyl acetate (which smells like a banana), we are plenty sensitive.

Our experience of the flavor of food is mostly due to smell, experienced through the back of the mouth - retronasal olfaction - instead of through the nostrils.

There's no way humans will ever achieve the mastery of smell that dogs enjoy but there are some ways you can improve your sense of smell.

 I recommend reading Alexandra Horowitz's book, "Being a Dog: Following the Dog in the World of Smell."

The author set out to improve her sense of smell by following a dog's lead, as well as that of some olfactory experts, among them a perfumer, a sommelier, and a pair of animal trackers. Dog's excepted, few of these experts were born noses.

Her advise seems pretty simple and straightforward - Stick your nose in it. Consider a dog's daily behavior and contrast it with the frequency with which you see a person with nose smashed against a surface, inhaling calmly and confidently. No comparison. Humans just have to get closer to the source in order to bring more odor molecules into their noses.

It's a worthy read if you love dogs and wish you could improve your sense of smell. Don't worry, you don't have to follow people around sniffing their butts to recognize them when they come into a room!

As it Stands, there are so many odors we don't stop to take the time to appreciate like the smell of freshly mowed grass or the advent of spring.