Do Dogs See Smells?

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misterjinglejay

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Has anyone done any research, is it even possible, on whether dogs 'see' smells, as well as smell them?

Like sort of visible sound waves eminating from the source, or extra large auric fields? Would they be coloured?

Just something I was pondering on whilst walking the mutleys this morning.
 
I wouldn't say so - but you never know :D

although if you think about it, if they could 'see' smells, then there'd be no point in them sniffing, would there - with things like tracking etc. If my dog could see the scent of where I hide his kongs and toys our search games would be over very quickly!

And also, everything smells like something - the world would look bizarre!
 
There have been thousands of thinking years, given over to the question of scent, and very little has been achieved, or resolved!!

Some Tracker Dogs, often Bloodhounds, have been known to pick up on a track which is 24 hours old. What does a passing person leave behind, that's likely to still be there 24 hours later? I haven't the faintest idea!

As for scent being actually visible, I can't see that to be honest, but as so little is actually known about the subject, perhaps anything's possible!!

OP, what set off the thought train, with you?

Alec.
 
That's an interesting thought :)

I think they do defininitely have more advanced ability to detect scents than we do, but because of the way the cells that detect scent are set up, there is no real way for the scent to have any 3D characteristics.

We have senses where we don't have to have contact with the thing we're perceiving (vision and hearing) and what are called chemical senses where the cells have actually to be in contact with (even a tiny molecule of) the thing being perceived before they will register it (smell and taste). Chemical sense nerve cells are arranged to detect the strength of a smell or taste and to distinguish between many many different smells and tastes (and they are to some extent linked). But the cells don't tell you what direction the thing is, how big it is, how close it is, what shape it is, because they're not set up to do that.

With vision, the cells are set up to get information about size, shape, orientation, distance - and with hearing too, the type of sound wave can give information on direction and distance without the animal moving their head.

For a dog to know about a scent, they have to move to find out more than "I smell a rat" ;).

Noses would have evolved in a different shape if they had been intended to produce "vision" like information to the brain.

I wish my students asked good questions like that, by the way :D
 
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I often think about how the world is for my dogs and cats (I'd rather not know what it's like for the retired ponio - food, poo and maybe a touch of boredom, and at the moment, laughing at me whilst I try and stay on my feet :) )

I bought a painting a few years ago - a sort of abstract with concentric circles of colour, swirling amongst more colours. The reason I bought it was that I've always had this theory (scientifically proven otherwise, but still....) that that is how cats 'see' the world.

When I say 'see', I mean sort of psychically (without all the stupid conitations). Dogs, cats etc have a much 'higher' sense of the world around them than we do, and I've always wondered if they see pictures in their minds - how their imagination (??) works.

I don't know about you, but when I'm thinking of something, or describing, I get a picture in my head, I wonder if dogs/cats have the same?

So, do dogs 'see' smells - physically, obviously not, but in their heads - hmmmm?

Sorry, probably a load of crappy waffle!
 
When dogs track they are smelling crushed vegetation, crushed insects, sweat, shoe leather, etc not 'a man'. I have an old police dog training manual by the Met from the 1970s which explains it really well.

They work by following scent 'cones' and there are a couple of interesting books about search dogs you could look up, Search Dogs and Me by Neil Powell, So That Others May Live by Caroline Hebard, In Search of the Missing by Mick McCarthy.
Also some sort-of related research which came out last week about how words are linked to size and texture:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...-links-language-size-texture-study-shows.html
 
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