POOCH'S PEE-MAIL

Did you hear about the police dog that wouldn’t leave a patch of lawn overlooking an area being ‘swept’ before a visit by Queen Elizabeth II?  Shovels were fetched and a small rock was found 60 CM DOWN, that still carried minute traces of gelignite from quarrying!

What about the search warrant where a police dog kept worrying a large LPG bottle in use for cooking? The stove had to be turned off, the gas was released, and rifles were found concealed INSIDE the bottle!

Dogs can also detect lost people, bombs, drugs, scat, money, imminent epileptic seizures and tornados, melanomas, and of course ‘pee-mail’….at least 10,000 times better than us!

Let’s see if they are just more in tune to smells because of their poor eyesight or whether they are uniquely designed for it….                                                              

Each nostril of a dog can be independently wiggled as it assesses the air intake to give directional signals to a brain 1/10 the size of ours but with 40 times more dedication to smell analysis.  12% of the air inhaled for respiration is diverted to smell detection (olfaction) where it passes over bony scroll-shaped plates (turbinates) containing up to 300 million scent receptors (we have only 5 - 6 million) over an area 60 times larger. The exhaled air is then swirled out though slits in the sides of the nose so as not to confuse the air intake.

It doesn’t stop there. Puppies blind at birth, have heat detection (for finding mum) that switches off with adulthood when a distinct part of the brain will rely on Jacobson’s organs to detect pheromones for sex communication.                                                

Your already know your dog is special and just as unique as you….your dog’s clammy nose-print is as unique as your fingerprints!….but that’s another story.

Can you see any Master Design up the nose of man’s best friend??

Acknowledgements: 
Sgt. Bill Davidson (ret’d), Wintergarden Men’s Coffee Club, Port Macquarie NSW                                                           pbs.org
Photo credits:
Bloodhound / care2.com
Pee-mail / flickr.com