If you were not aware of it, dogs are not at all sensitive or self conscious about their noses like humans sometimes are.  They never go to their plastic surgeon to have it straightened, bobbed or turned up.  There is good reason for this; their noses are just plain better than ours.

A dog’s nose can locate bodies whether dead or alive.  They do this by following the scent from shed skin flakes, sweat droplets and human odors that can last for about 100 hours.  Dogs can be trained to find the scent of certain accelerants when investigating potential arson fires and, as you probably know, they can sniff out drugs to assist police with their investigations.  Some dogs are even used to detect toxic wastes, unexploded ordnance or cancer cells.

There are good reasons for this heightened sensitivity.  Smell is the dog’s most advanced sense; a large part of its brain is devoted to interpreting scent.  Notice that a dog’s nose has a different design than ours.  There are slits on the side of the dog’s nose.  This allows exhaled air to exit through the slits and not dilute the incoming air to the nostrils containing fresh scent.  When a dog is seeking a scent it will breathe faster and widen its nostrils to take in more air.  Dogs also have an olfactory bulb that is at least four times larger than found in humans.  The olfactory bulb is the area of the brain where the scent organs converge.  Typically, a dog has about 200 million scent receptors in its nasal folds, compared to 5 million in humans.

Moisture on the nose helps to capture scent, which is transmitted onto the nasal membranes, which cover the wafer-thin turbinate bones.  These bones have convoluted folds in order to capture even the tiniest amount of scent.  Sensory cells are then tightly packed along the nasal-membrane lining to convert scent to chemical messages transmitted to the olfactory bulb region of the brain.

The sensitivity of a dog’s nose also makes it more susceptible to many diseases.  Short-nosed breeds can have more breathing problems and are more prone to heat stroke and overheating.  As you would expect, long-nosed breeds can breathe easier, but can sometimes develop nasal cancer.  If you notice that your dog’s nose has a discharge or becomes crusty, you should see your veterinarian.  Something in their system is not working correctly.  A veterinarian normally examines the inside of the nose with an otoscope that allows the doctor to look for growths or inflammation.

The information provided in this article has been gratefully researched from the website for the SPCA of Texas and certain other sources.