The Sense of Smell in Dogs

This evening around 7:45PM my daughter came to me and said that my wife, Claudia, and her, wanted to take Rollo for a walk. I said that I had told Claudia that I would go with her and Rollo for a walk at 8:00PM, and that I was in the middle of something right now. We had an argument, which ended with my daughter and my wife taking Rollo for a walk at around 7:50PM, and I stayed home to finish what I was doing. The reason we are walking him late in the evening is because here in north Texas it is pretty hot, so you need to wait until twilight.

They left, but at 8:00PM I decided to join them, so I went after them. However, I could not find them. When I reached an intersection, I called my wife on her phone to find out which way they went. She did not answer because she had left her phone at home. The same was true for my daughter. But then I thought I heard Rollo barking, so I went that way. It turned out it was another dog. I turned around and started walking home. I had about a mile back home.

Soon after I had rounded a corner in an intersection, I heard a bark. I turned around and there was Rollo running towards me with my daughter running behind him holding the leash. She explained that Rollo had picked up a scent about half a mile back and had started running. She thought he had smelled another dog and along the way they passed a dog. However, he just ran passed the dog without acknowledging the dog. He was obviously after something else. She was wondering what he was running after, and she found the answer as they rounded the corner and saw me.

He had smelled my scent and had started running to find me from half a mile away. It wasn’t like I stank to high heaven. I took a shower today. How could he smell me, just from walking around the neighborhood? The sense of smell of dogs is amazing. Clearly Rollo’s sense of smell was better than my hearing. According to this article (and this) a dog’s sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times more acute than that of a human. You can read more about Rollo here and here and here. Below are a few photos of Rollo.

A mini-Australian Shepherd puppy lying on a blanket and looking into the camera.
Close up of Rollo as a puppy.
The photo shows a mini-Australian Shepherd puppy biting an orange volleyball.
Rollo playing with a volleyball.
The photo shows a mini-Australian Shepherd biting a Leonberger’s tail.
Rollo frequently bit our Leonberger Bronco’s tail, and he even swung in it like a swing. He climbed all over Bronco. Bronco was very patient with him.

The Day Our Leonberger Bronco Sniffed out an Insulin Shock

According to the article that I mentioned above “Dogs’ powerful noses are being used in medicine to detect diseases, sniffing them out in a less invasive manner than the currently available diagnostic tests”. For example, dogs have been able to accurately detect cancer, predict seizures and identify people with low blood sugar just by using their noses. This is exactly what I am going to describe below.

We used to have a Labrador called Baylor who had diabetes. Well, more exactly he was ¾ Labrador and ¼ Rhodesian Ridgeback. I used to give him insulin shots after every meal. We also had a Leonberger called Bronco. This was a large dog. Leonberger are related to Saint Bernards and about the same size.

One day as we had just gone to bed our Leonberger Bronco started barking while looking intently at Baylor, then he looked at us, then he turned his head toward Baylor and started barking again. He did this a few times—not aggressively, but to get our attention. It became clear to us that Bronco wanted us to look at Baylor. I examined Baylor but saw nothing wrong at first. Then I looked again. This time I saw that his back legs were shaking slightly. It quickly got worse. His gait became wobbly, then within perhaps fifteen seconds he fainted. He had gone into insulin shock. “Insulin shock” is another name for severe hypoglycemia, a condition where blood sugar (glucose) is dangerously low. Exactly, what dogs can smell out according to the article above. We rushed him to the emergency clinic, where fortunately the doctors were able to revive him.

Bronco detected a problem with Baylor before we could see anything wrong. His warnings gave us that little bit of extra time we needed to save Baylor’s life. Imagine if we had gone to bed, fallen asleep and not noticed the problem. I can add that Leonbergers have a very keen sense of smell. We had never taught Bronco to detect insulin shock or any other condition. It was entirely his own instinct. This was one of the amazing superpowers Bronco had. I should say that we didn’t know this at the time, but giving a dog sugar, or something sweet, can bring him out of insulin shock. To read more about this incident click here or here. Below are some photos of Bronco and Baylor.

Close up photo of Baylor our Labrador Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. He is looking into the camera.
Baylor is young in this photo. The photo is from around 2005 or 2006. Baylor had a smile that would warm the coldest hearts.
Our Leonberger is standing on the large red leather sofa giving me a kiss.
Me and our Leonberger Bronco when he was young.
Bronco our Leonberger is standing in front of me and he is looking into the camera.
Our Leonberger Bronco is ready for dinner
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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

39 thoughts on “The Sense of Smell in Dogs”

  3. Wonderful share, Thomas! Even with all the information we already have, it is still quite hard to truly grasp a dog’s sense of smell. Only through practical situations, like the one you described, can we realize how extraordinary their smell is. Or how limited ours is. Thanks for another great read, my friend. Much appreciated! Sending light and blessings to you and yours 🙏✨

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  4. Java Bean: “Ayyy, it has got to be tough to be a human, wandering around the world just looking at stuff and not being able to smell things they can’t see or things that passed by a week ago or messages that were left on a tree last month.”Lulu: “Yep. We can’t even imagine it.”

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  6. Lovely post Thomas. All three dogs are gorgeous.
    We are also aware of the sensitivity of dogs noses. Maggie would have made a brilliant sniffer dog, She could smell a pheasant or ptarmigan in the undergrowth and not leave until she’d lifted it. She flipped a bunny and rolled a pigeon (don’t know who was more surprised at that but there were feathers everywhere), but when she cornered a squirrel, it bit her on the nose and it didn’t ‘arf bleed!
    Maya’s not so good with her beak, and doesn’t use it to its full potential but she has sought out a deer, and if we play the flower pot game, she never fails to find the treat first time. However, she does sense when something isn’t quite right, like the lady in the cafe whose sugar levels were out of sync and Maya sat next to her until she’s sorted herself out. I think it’s wonderful when these skills are enhanced with training in assistance dogs.

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    1. Yes it is amazing what they can do with their noses and every time I am reminded of it, it blows my mind. It sounds like Maggie had a really amazing sense of smell. Is Maya maybe older? Our pug lost some of her sense of smell as she got old. But it is amazing that Maya noticed that the lady’s sugar level was low. I agree with you it is “wonderful when these skills are enhanced with training in assistance dogs.” I should say that there are smelling competitions for Leonberger dogs. They chase and find rodents. Bronco never took part in that but based on his finding of run away hamsters I am pretty sure he would have been good at it.

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      1. We had Maggie as a pup at 7 and a half weeks. Maya was 13 weeks when we got her as we didn’t know of her existence until then. She can sniff out biscuits with no trouble, even from a stranger’s pocket which can be embarrassing, but she doesn’t really use it as much as Maggie did. Of course on her walks, everything has to be sniffed!!!

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  9. These stories make me think of the work that police dogs do because of their outstanding sense of smell. I remember a school assembly where a policeman and his dog gave a demonstration. There were five upside-down boxes on stage, and the dog immediately went to the one containing illicit drugs.

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  10. Dogs experience life through their noses. 😀 Your two stories illustrate just how impressive a dog’s sense of smell is. Amazing that Rollo picked up your scent from half a mile away! Bronco was a true hero in saving Baylor’s life. 💖

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    1. Thank you so much Debbie. Sometimes the dogs can sniff out things they are interested in, like Rollo finding me, but it is best if you can direct it through training. Like insulin shock detecting dogs, drug sniffing dogs, and we should have put Bronco in rodent finding competition. We did teach him to find run away hamsters. That is pretty close.

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    1. Thank you Robbie. He is the most rambunctious dog we’ve ever had but he is also so loving and trusting. Last night he crawled up next to me, squeezed himself to my chest, and slept like that the whole night. He is a very emotional being.

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  13. I can hardly imagine having such a sense of smell. Mine has always been pretty poor even by the standards of humans, such that sometimes I have to ask my wife if the cat litter pan needs to be changed or if I should dump out the creamer instead of using it. If I didn’t have her around I would probably have to invent some kind of Smell-O-Scope to tell me these things.

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  15. Pingback: Rollo Comforted Me – Leonberger Life

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