Can dogs sniff and detect sounds from a distance?

We feel and enhance our understanding of the world through our senses. The senses in each animal develop differently.

Dogs have more olfactory receptors than humans (olfactory receptors are a part of the nose capable of recognizing different smells). 

Dogs also have a larger nasal cavity and more air circulation through the nose than humans. Watch a dog when it sniffs and you can relate to how we smell an object. If there is more air going through the nose, the smell is easier to identify.

Dogs have a much more sense of smell than us.

How far a dog can sniff is dependent on many things , such as wind and odor. Under perfect conditions, they can smell the object or person 20 km away.

The interesting thing is that it's not only dogs that have such a good sense of smell. Dogs are in predators. Cats, bears and skunks also belong to this order. All animals in the predator family have a very strong sense of smell. Bears are one of the most sensitive olfactory species in the predator. Polar bears can smell seals (one of their bear food) from more than 30 km away.

If only by smell can you know that your best friend is in the next room, how will you feel? Would you like to know where your parents keep delicious chocolate cookies in the kitchen just by smelling them?

Dogs are 'detectives'

Thanks to the keen sense of smell, dogs can be trained to be professional dogs.

Sniff - this dog doesn't like the color of this suitcase.

Professional dogs help people find missing people, detect dangerous objects such as drugs, bombs, illegal imports at the airport, or even help people find wildlife. . With only a keen nose, dogs can become one of the best sniffing experts in the world. 

Hearing ability and distance

We already know that dogs can smell lots of things from a great distance. So what about the ability to hear? What can dogs hear and how far? Let's first find out how dogs and all animals, including humans, sound.

Sound has sound waves. Sound frequency is the degree of how close the waves are to each other. The closer the waves are to each other, the higher the frequency. You can imagine you are at the beach when there is a storm, you will see more waves rushing to the shore.

Humans hear at low frequencies (about 20Hz). Dogs not only hear like humans but also can hear at higher frequencies, up to 70 - 100Hz, which is at least 3 times higher than humans. Because dogs can hear even high frequency sounds, they can hear more sounds than we do.

They can also hear sounds smaller and farther away, up to 1 km away. This means that dogs are more sensitive to loud sounds. That's why some dogs are afraid of firecrackers or thunder. And so you can see a dog barking when you hear nothing strange.

Put your ears to hear

This is because they have a special ear muscle. They have more than a dozen muscles in the ear so they can tilt, tuck, hang, rotate each ear independently of the other.

Thus they determine where the sound comes from. Sometimes dogs tilt their heads to hear sounds, which is also to hear better.

Soldiers using a professional dog give the first indication that a dog identifies the suspect as when it moves its ears in all directions and then focuses on a certain direction.

You hear that? This business dog has discovered something.

Good hearing also helps dogs to do one more thing, which is to be the guide dog for the blind or deaf. Being able to hear well means that a dog can sense whether someone is coming to your home or on the road, so they can help the disabled determine the direction.