If dogs can’t smell family members and human relatives, what can they do?
If there’s one thing we can’t dispute, it’s that our canine buddies possess “smelling superpowers”. They smell the weirdest and most extraordinary stuff, which our human noses can’t detect.
For example, dogs can detect dead bodies and even smell underwater!
Be it the natural chemicals in the breath of a diabetic person, the scent of fear-related chemicals on our skin pores, an incoming storm from miles away, every single ingredient in your favorite bag of cookies – you name it. We give them credit for sniffing out things that are odorless to us.
That’s probably why many assume there’s nothing under the sun that our “nosey” canine friends can’t sniff.
I’ve heard people say that what dogs can’t smell doesn’t exist. Put simply, they’re capable of smelling everything! At least that’s what many dog lovers think.
But let’s separate the facts from the urban myths.
While it’s true that dogs have an astounding smelling ability, they can’t tell whether people are related just by their sense of smell.
But people do think this is the case. As an example, when a new baby comes into the home, some people will think the dog can smell it’s a family member. But this isn’t always the case, other dogs can become dangerously jealous of new babies, and won’t treat them like a member of the family!
Back to dogs smelling if humans are related though… as you probably know, people who are related have several DNA similarities. The DNA traces in their blood, hair follicles, saliva, and other cells in the body are almost the same.
So, for dogs to be able to smell that humans are relatives, they should be able to sniff out the genetic material in their bodies and make the conclusion.
Reliable findings show that dogs cannot smell the genetic materials in our cells. Clearly, there’s a limit to what dogs can sniff out.
Our canine friends simply grow fond of people from the same household and learn to differentiate them by scent. The common belief is that a doggo knows people are related if it spends almost its entire time with the same faces.
Let’s just say that when dogs get used to being around the same people, they assume their favorite humans are related. It’s as simple as that.
How dogs tell family members apart
Are you aware that every person has a unique natural scent?
Yes, you read that right. We all have a signature odor. See how no one else in the world has the same fingerprints as you? That’s what your natural odor is like. It’s a genetically determined odor that lingers on our skin pores and clothes.
And when we sweat, even a little bit, this odor will be fully present in the sweat. Think of this distinct scent as your unique identity. Not even identical twins have the same natural scent.
In fact, researchers from the Czech Republic did a mind-blowing study and found that well-trained dogs can differentiate a twin from another just by their natural odor.
Our noses and brains aren’t powerful enough to sniff and process another person’s natural odor. But you can already guess who can — our four-legged best friends.
So even during days when you aren’t all soaked up in your favorite perfume, your canine buddy can still sniff you from afar and know you’re around based on your natural scent.
As I’ve said a million times by now, dogs have impressive smelling abilities.
Their powerful olfactory system makes it possible for them to sniff the faintest of scents. Your doggo has millions of olfactory receptor cells in its nose lining. Approximately 300 million, to be precise.
In contrast, we only have around 6 million of these receptor cells.
Olfactory receptors enable our canine friends to smell all sorts of scents, including the almost-odorless natural scents our bodies emit. They don’t struggle like we do because their noses are up to the task.
When your dog is around a family member, their olfactory cells will smell the natural scent of this person. Remember, everyone in the family has their unique natural odor.
A dog’s nose and brain work together to determine what scent belongs to who.
The dog’s receptor cells will send the person’s odor information to the brain for processing. Similar to the human brain, our furry friends also have a part called the olfactory bulb in their brain. Its main function is processing people’s scents, among many other smells such as other dog’s butts.
The olfactory bulb in our canine pals is up to 40 times bigger than ours, so you can imagine the level of odor information processing that goes on in your pooch’s brain!
And once the olfactory bulb does its thing, the dog’s brain will store the family member’s scent as part of its olfactory memories. These as basically scent memories.
In other words, your furry friend’s brain will store every family member’s unique smell. Your pooch will know who owns what scent because it lingers in their brain.
How a dog’s brain responds to the familiar smell of a family member
Ever wondered what makes your beloved family pooch act super excited when around any of your family members?
Research shows your canine friend’s brain has another useful region called the caudate nucleus. The caudate is flooded with reward signals that get activated if something positive happens — For instance, when your pooch sees you handing them a treat, the caudate lights up with pleasure.
And when a dog smells a familiar family member, experts say the activation of the caudate is significantly higher. That means your dog’s brain will release more pleasure responses when they sniff the scent of a family member they know, hence the excitement.
You can train your dog to learn a relative’s scent, and they should remember it for many years. This is a good mental stimulation exercise and a great way to help your dog familiarize themselves with the smell of someone related to you (but doesn’t live with you, though they visit from time to time).
The good thing is, it only takes a few repetitions for our canine friends to master a new odor. And the training process is quite straightforward:
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Studies have also highlighted that dogs do react favorably to the smell of their owner and their family. A dog is able to recognize the scent of their own family.