Understanding Your Dog's 5 Senses

​Like humans, dogs too have 5 essential senses. Understanding these is one of the best ways to understand your pet better. Let’s take a detailed look at these senses- sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. 

1. Sight

​Many people believe that dogs have poor eyesight. But the fact is that their sight is appropriate for their own species. They can see much better at night, especially when compared to humans. Their eyesight has evolved very differently from that of humans, and they are able to see things in motion better compared to clear, stationary objects. 

Dogs also have limited visual capacity when it comes to seeing colours and can see everything around them in shades of grey, yellow and blue. This explains why your dog can’t easily see the ball that’s lying on the lawn, within plain sight. Choose your pet’s toys with care- look for ones that move, light up or glow or even ones that make some noise or have a distinctive smell. ​

2. Smell

​Your pet dog also has an extremely heightened sense of smell- you’ll be surprised to know that it’s 10,000-100,000 times stronger than human’s sense of smell. So, you would easily be able to smell those chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven, as soon as you step into your house. But your dog would be able to pick up the scent of every ingredient that’s gone into it. 

​That’s really amazing, isn’t it?  Little wonder then that some dog breeds like German Shepherds, Bloodhounds, and Belgian Malinois, are specifically trained to be sniffer dogs and help law enforcement detect the presence of drugs or explosives. Species like the American Pit Bull Terrier, Border Collies, and Beagles are perfect search & rescue dogs. Pet parents should keep this aspect of their dog’s sense in mind and can use fun scent games while training them. 

3. Hearing

​Dogs have a far more acute and fine-tuned sense of hearing than humans. They are able to hear far more clearly and loudly than we do and can identify subtleties in sound as well. Have you noticed how dogs know instinctively when you pull into the driveway, even though no one else in your house may have heard your car cruising in? 

Try driving another car of the same make and model as yours into your driveway, and your dog will know it isn’t your vehicle. The unique structure and shape of their ears are what gives them their acute sense of hearing. ​

4. Taste

​We have 9000 taste buds where as our canine friends have less than a quarter of the amount with only around 1700 taste buds. Their taste buds are on the tip of their tongue and they can taste sweet, salty, sour and bitter just like us. As their sense of taste is not as developed and they can still smell food which helps them determine what they like to eat.  

Dogs don’t always eat food for its taste, they will happily chew & swallow things that look even remotely edible. This makes it very important to carefully monitor what your pet puts into his mouths as some things they attempt to swallow can prove to be toxic and fatal too. So, it’s up to us to make sure we don’t feed them these toxic foods such as chocolate, grapes, onions etc

With your dog’s taste senses, herbs are great as they can be added to your dog’s meals giving them many great health benefits and even though the taste is appealing to us humans our dogs are happy to gobble it up. K9 SWiM have herbal products along with natural supplements that you can purchase, and you can contact Sharon who is a qualified Animal Herbalist and Naturopath to discuss what will be best for your dog.

5. Touch

​In the first few weeks of their lives, a dog’s sense of touch is one of the very first senses to develop. Their entire body is covered in a number of touch-sensitive nerve endings that can “feel” the world all around them. They use this sense to communicate with you as well as with other dogs. This makes it very important to communicate with them by petting them, scratching or massaging them.  

Brushing their fur is another way of showing your affection for your pet. 

Learning to massage your dog will not only bond you and your fur baby but will provide great benefits such as general well being, better movement and a healthier and happy dog. Massage improves circulation which improves and supports all systems of the dog’s body and by doing this you will give your dog a better quality of life and longevity. Sharon runs Canine massage workshops. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to find out when they are running. 

You can use this information to build a stronger bond with your dog and understand him better. 

At K9 SWiM we are very conscious of all your dog’s senses to give them the best care.