The Institute of Canine Biology
  • HOME
  • Blog
  • Courses
    • COI BootCamp (FREE!)
    • Basic Population Genetics (FREE)
    • The Science of Canine Husbandry
    • Managing Genetics For the Future >
      • Syllabus - Managing Genetics for the Future
    • The Biology of Dogs (Open Reg )
    • DNA For Dog Breeders >
      • Syllabus - DNA for Dog Breeders
      • Open Reg - DNA For Dog Breeders
    • Understanding Hip & Elbow Dysplasia >
      • Open Reg - Understanding Hip & Elbow Dysplasia
    • Genetics of Behavior & Performance >
      • Syllabus - Genetics Behavior & Performance
      • Open Reg - Genetics of Behavior & Performance (Open Reg)
    • Strategies for Preservation Breeding >
      • Open Reg - Strategies for Preservation Breeding
    • Group Discounts
    • MORE FREE COURSES >
      • Quickie Genetics (Free!)
      • Heredity & Genetics (Free!)
      • Useful Genetics (Free!)
      • Basic Genetics Videos
  • Breed Preservation
    • Breed Status
    • Breeding for the future >
      • BFF Breed Groups
    • The "Elevator Pitch"
    • What's in the Gene Pool?
    • The Pox of Popular Sires
    • What population genetics can tell us about a breed
    • What population genetics can tell you...Tollers & Heelers
    • How to use kinship data
    • Using EBVs to breed better dogs >
      • How population size affects inbreeding
      • EBV Examples
    • How to read a dendrogram
    • Global Pedigree Project >
      • The Database
    • Finding the genes without DNA
    • How to read a heat map
  • Health Data
    • Bloat (Purdue Study)
    • Body Condition Score >
      • % Dysplastic vs BCS
    • Breed Comparions
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Cataracts
    • Caesareans
    • Deafness
    • Degenerative Myelopathy
    • Elbow Dysplasia
    • Epilepsy
    • Genetic Diversity
    • Genetic Diversity (MyDogDNA)
    • Hip Dysplasia >
      • Hip Dysplasia (Hou et al 2013)
    • Inbreeding Effects
    • Inbreeding (Gubbels)
    • Inbreeding (Dreger)
    • Lifespan
    • Litter size
    • Metabolic
    • mtDNA
    • Orthopedic
    • Mode of Inheritance
    • Patella Luxation
    • Thyroid
    • Portosystemic shunt
    • Purebred vs Mixed (UC Davis)
    • Purebred vs Mixed Breed (Bonnett)
    • Spay & Neuter Effects
    • Calboli et al 2008
    • Hodgman (1963)
    • Scott & Fuller (1965)
    • Stockard: Purebred crosses
    • Summers (2011)
  • Projects
    • How To Interpret Breed Analyses
    • Afghan Hound
    • More details about the Toller study
    • Belgian Tervuren >
      • Belgian Terv p2
      • Belgians- why population size matters
    • Bernese Mountain Dog
    • Boxer
    • Brussels Griffon
    • Bullmastiff
    • Canaan Dog >
      • Canaan analyses
    • Cesky Terrier >
      • Cesky genetic history
    • Chinook
    • Curly-coated Retriever
    • Doberman
    • Entelbucher Mountain Dog
    • Flatcoat Retriever
    • French Bulldog
    • German Shorthair
    • Golden Retriever >
      • Golden Retriever Pedigree Charts
    • Irish Water Spaniel >
      • IWS (6 Nov 17)
    • Labrador Retriever
    • Manchester Terrier
    • Mongolian Bankhar >
      • Research Updates
      • Bankhar 1
    • Norwegian Lundehund
    • Plummer Terrier
    • Otterhound
    • Portuguese Water Dog >
      • Portuguese Water Dog (pt 2)
    • Ridgeback
    • Schipperke
    • Standard Poodle >
      • The Problem With Poodles
      • 3poodle pedigree charts
      • 3Poodle Wycliff dogs
      • Poodle Genetics
    • Tibetan Spaniel
    • Tibetan Mastiff
    • West Highland White Terrier
    • Whippet
    • Wirehaired Pointing Griffons
    • UK KC Graphs >
      • UK KC Breed Status
      • UK Groups
      • KC Gundogs
      • KC Hounds
      • KC Terriers >
        • Terriers (select breeds)
      • KC Pastoral
      • KC Toys
      • KC Working
      • KC Utility
      • Australian KC
    • Breed outcrossing programs
  • Resources
    • Genetics Databases
    • Stud Books >
      • American Kennel Club stud books
      • Field Dog stud books
      • The Kennel Club (UK)
    • Learn
    • Videos about dog genetics
    • The Amazing Things Dogs Do! (videos) >
      • Livestock Management
      • Livestock guarding
      • Transportation, exploration, racing
      • Conservation & wildlife management
      • Detection Dogs
      • Medicine & Research
      • Entertainment
      • AKC/CHF Podcasts
    • Read & Watch
    • Bookshelf
  • Preventing Uterine Inertia

The amazing dog nose: can you smell me now?

8/26/2017

 
By Carol Beuchat PhD
The amazing olfactory abilities of the dog are well-known to any dog owner. With a sniff of the door jamb, my dog knows who is on the other side of the front door before I open it, he can locate one of his toys hidden in a drawer, and he heads straight for the person with treats in their pocket when we go to the dog park. We have made good use of this portable detection system to find lost children, locate bombs, detect cancer, and many, many other things. The dog's nose is truly remarkable.
Just as amazing as its sensitivity to odor is its design, which is much more complex that it might first appear. Inside the muzzle is a complicated system of passages, the turbinates, that both humidify the air and also direct it to the olfactory organ for scent detection. This design must accomplish both respiration and scenting as breathing and sniffing, respectively.
Some new studies reveal that the nose is much more complicated than might be expected from its simple design. There are two front-facing nostrils, or nares, as well as slits along the bottom on each side. With some very clever experiments, researchers have shown that this design is no accident. They have been able to reveal how air flows in and out of the canine nose, and how its simple design improves scent detection. In fact, engineers can build better chemical sensing devices by learning a few things from the dog.
Although dogs usually make very willing research participants, to achieve enough control to do replicate experiments, the researchers fabricated a model of the nose. They used information from high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and made a model nose using a 3D printer.
Picture
Inside the model nose, a cylinder with a a piston moved air into and out of the nostrils to mimic inhalation and exhalation. A hot-wire anemometer sensed the air flow and could detect changes with a resolution of 1 millisecond. The flow characteristics of the fake nose were similar to those of a Labrador Retriever.
To determine the sensitivity of scent detection, they placed a "smell" source, a chemical called 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT), in a small tin with holes in the side to allow vapor to escape. They used sophisticated chemical sensors (ambient ion mass spectroscopy) to document scent detection.
Finally, to visualize the flows of air, they used high speed video and "schlieren imaging", which uses optical techniques to photograph density gradients in air flow, as well as "theater fog" for some demonstrations.
Picture
Staymates et al 2016
Picture
Staymates et al 2016


What they found is fascinating. When the dog exhales, air is directed downwards and outwards. When the dog is sniffing a surface, the airflow from exhalation actually draws the odor from the object being scented towards the nose. This effectively extends the "aerodynamic reach" of the nose. The inspiration-expiration cycle during scent detection is repeated very quickly, about 5 times per second.
Picture
Staymates et al 2016
Picture
Staymates et al 2016

The air flow patterns that result from the simple design of the dog's nose increase the efficiency of scent detection by 8 times over that for the steady "inspiration" used in scent detection devices. This is achieved simply by directing the exhaled air away from the source of the odor in a way that draws the scent towards the nose. In fact, the farther away the scent, the greater the advantage of the dog's nose over a commercial device with continuous inspiration; in one set of experiments, the dog's nose was 4 times better than the detector at a distance of 10 cm from the source of the scent, and 18 times better at a distance of 20 cm.
Using what they learned from the dog, these researchers were able to construct a "bioinspired" scent detector that "sniffs" instead of continuously drawing in air and directs the exhaled air in a way that draws in scent from the source to the intake. When the air intake was directly above the source of the scent (distance = 0 in the graph below), continuous "inspiration" was as good or better than sniffing. But as the scent source moved away, the advantage of sniffing got better and better.
​
Picture
Staymates et al 2016

Needless, to say, the results of this study should be of great interest to the military and in situations where efficient odor detection is critical. A simple alteration in the design of odor detection devices, inspired by the anatomy of the canine nose, can result in spectacular improvements in efficiency.

Now why didn't we think of that?
Be sure to check out the really cool videos below that show the airflow patterns during odor detection by the model dog nose. (All videos are from Staymates et al 2016)

You can learn more amazing things about dogs in ICB's online course,
The Biology of Dogs

The next class starts Monday, 4 September.
Sign up HERE!


REFERENCES

Staymates ME, WA MacCrehan, JL Staymates, and others. 2016. Biomimetic sniffing improves the detection performance of a 3D printed nose of a dog and a commercial trace vapor detector. Scientific Reports 6:36876; DOI: 10.1038/srep36876.

To learn more about the genetics of dogs, check out
ICB's online courses

***************************************

Visit our Facebook Groups

ICB Institute of Canine Biology
...the latest canine news and research

ICB Breeding for the Future
...the science of animal breeding


Comments are closed.

    Archives

    January 2025
    November 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    December 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    October 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    March 2013
    July 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All
    Behavior
    Border-collie
    Herding

Blog

News


About Us

Contact Us








Copyright © 2012-2017 Institute of Canine Biology
Picture
Picture