This time we are going to talk about your dogs nose. Admittedly not the most glamorous subject, but every day, all across the world this amazing piece of anatomy is helping to catch criminals and most importantly saving countless lives. Now I know that facts and figures are pretty boring but just bear with me for a moment. A human has around 5 million scent receptors in their nose, the dog has in excess of 220million in his nose. If the membrane lining inside of the dogs nose were to be laid out flat it would cover a surface larger than the dogs body. The United States Army, never an organisation to do anything by half, has gone to extraordinary lengths to test the dogs nose. In one instance they sent a man across a field then set it alight and just to make life difficult they decided to get it deep ploughed. They have tried sending divers across rivers using scuba apparatus They tried scattering live ammunition in a minefield to distract. None of this defeated the dogs. Some dogs are better suited to be tracker dogs, for instance German Shepherds, Labradors and Springer Spaniels are probably the best known breeds, whereas Pugs and Pekingese and this type of short nosed dogs are disadvantaged by the shape of their face which disrupts breathing. Whilst we are here, let’s dispel the great myth that sniffer dogs are addicted to the product that they are searching for, nothing could be further from the truth, whatever it is, drugs, currency, explosives or any other item the most effective way of training is to put the item in a metal tube with holes in it,  therefore allowing air to circulate and ensuring that the dog never comes in to direct contact with the product. The dogs sense of smell is so great that put into simple terms the dog has the ability to find something the size of half a teaspoon of sugar in an Olympic size swimming pool. I have referred to a dog as “he”, and for the benefits of my lady readers I can assure that I am not being sexist!! It is just with the canine it is the male who generally has a stronger tracking ability unlike many other mammals where the reverse is true. It should be noted that the dogs response to finding the article has also has to be carefully trained, after all its perfectly ok for a drug dog to show wild enthusiasm when finding the packet of illicit drugs but for the explosive sniffer dog the same response would be catastrophic so he is taught to remain rigid thus ensuring that he don’t disturb the highly dangerous item but at the same time warning his handler of the danger. We can expect some strange happenings in medicine in the next few years. Dogs are already able to identify some cancers and other ailments and whilst this image is a little fanciful maybe in the years to come a visit to the doctors might take a different form. Maybe you will walk past several dogs who will identify your condition thus leaving the doctor to just write the prescription!!! We can send men to the moon and to the bottom of oceans, we can make machines to do just about anything but we cannot make a machine that comes close to replicating the dogs nose. So next time your faithful hound is disturbing your siesta by snoring or putting his cold wet nose in a totally inappropriate place, maybe, just maybe, you might be a little more understanding!!…. and forgiving!! R I am indebted to Dr Bruce Fogle  M.B.E  D.V.M. M.R.C.V.S. for the technical information in this article

Saving the life of one animal won’t change the world but for that one animal the world changes forever.