Even though the sense of smell, taste and even hearing play a role in how you perceive the world, sight is the most vital thing. However, dogs are very different. Unlike humans who see the world with their eyes, dogs “see” with their noses. The dogs perceive the world through what they smell. But how does it really work? Perceiving the world through sight seems very obvious since most humans are used to it but when you think about it, building perception through smell can be just as effective. After all, even when you close your eyes, there is still a reality that you can hear, smell, touch, and feel. Even though it may not be the reality that we are already familiar with, it still exists. That is the best way to understand how dogs perceive the world. As a human, you can even give it a try.
Start by closing your eyes and shutting down the noise with noise cancellation headphones. Then sniff around and see what you get. Even though the sense of smell for humans is not as effective as that of dogs, it will give you a clear picture of how dogs perceive the world. The primary sense for dogs is literally scents. It is believed that every person has a specific scent that they carry with them. A dog will smell you first before they even see you. This does not, however, mean that dogs can’t see. They will still see and recognize you but it’s your smell that they will detect first.
Another important distinction to make is how dogs use their sense of smell. For example, you are walking in a street and a strong aroma of pizza rents the air. If you are curious, you can follow the smell and boom! You’ll find the pizza. For dogs is a bit different. If they smell the pizza, for example, they will follow it. But once they find the pizza, it doesn’t end there. They will want to explore the pizza and just try to understand what it is. Dogs are built to have a strong sense of smell and the way their noses are built is very different from humans. Even as dogs sniff and expel air, they are constantly honing their sense of smell so that they can detect things better.
The smell receptors in dogs are also very developed. The way dogs sniff and process the smell is far superior when compared to humans. Just to put this into perspective, dogs have 60 times more olfactory receptor cells than humans. Finally, dogs will take smell as just information. Unlike humans who have a very limited opinion on smell to just bad or good, every smell that a dog sniffs is information and in most cases, the smell will be different over and over again. Smell is very important for dogs and that is how they perceive the world.
