# question about german shepherds PLEASE HELP ME!!!



## MustLoveGSDs (Oct 31, 2008)

I'm doing a essay on German Shepherds and I have been searching everywhere I could think of, but have found nothing. I need to know, how good are German Shepherd's noses compared to human's noses? 


PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!


----------



## SunCzarina (Nov 24, 2000)

It's in the thousands, sorry can't remember the specific number.


----------



## moei (Sep 28, 2007)

A typical German shepherd, known to be a top scent tracker has 220 million sensory cells compared with a human's 5 million! (http://www.animalhealthcare.ca/kidscontent.asp?id=6)


----------



## DustinRindal (Oct 11, 2008)

Humans have 5 million smell receptors. Dachsunds have 125 million, Fox Terrier have 147 million, Beagles have 225 million and so do the German Shepherd. (225 million) And the Bloodhound has the most at 300 million. Dont judge me but I bought understand your dog for DUMMIES! (One more book on the book shelf) Hope this helps!


Sorry! Just saw someone posted that while I was typing!


----------



## Ilovealldogs (Nov 17, 2006)

Here's one source:

http://www.uspcak9.com/training/scent.pdf



This is also true of the square area of olfactory receptor cells in the
human nasal chambers. In the human this area is about the size of a postage stamp
compared to about one square yard in a German Shepherd dog. The human receptor
site contains approximately 5 million cells where the German Shepherd dog has
approximately 220 million cells.
Dividing the 5 million into the 220 million would indicate the dog’s ability to scent
is 44 times greater than the human. However, it may not be that simple. You must
take into account the dog has a larger processing capacity. When the larger
processing capacity is coupled with a data collection system that is 44 times greater
the difference may be an exponential of the 44. Since the dog’s ability to indicate,
if not detect, an odor increases with training this will also widen the gap between
man and dog.


----------



## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

> Quote:
> A dog's sense of smell is up to a million times more sensitive than a human's.
> 
> Dogs can detect scents we don't even know exist, and they can identify the faintest of smells, even when they're heavily masked by other scents -- such as the odor of trace amounts of heroin that have been hidden in pungent aniseed. A dog's sense of smell is often more powerful than the best scientific instruments, which is why dogs have been used to detect not only drugs but also gas leaks and explosives, and to find people lost in the wilderness or buried in avalanches.
> ...


http://kryptiks-lair.tripod.com/id12.html


----------



## sgtmom52 (Aug 30, 2008)

The following is copied from "Understanding Your Dog For Dummies"

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/Understanding-a-Dog-s-Sense-of-Smell.id-5324.html

*Born to sniff*
To gain more respect for your dog's olfactory ability, compare it to a person's nose. Inside the nose of both species are bony scroll-shaped plates, called turbinates, over which air passes. A microscopic view of this organ reveals a thick, spongy membrane that contains most of the scent-detecting cells, as well as the nerves that transport information to the brain. In humans, the area containing these odor analyzers is about one square inch, or the size of a postage stamp. If you could unfold this area in a dog, on the other hand, it may be as large as 60 square inches, or just under the size of a piece of typing paper.


Though the size of this surface varies with the size and length of the dog's nose, even flat-nosed breeds can detect smells far better than people. The following table shows the number of scent receptors in people and several dog breeds.

A dog's brain is also specialized for identifying scents. The percentage of the dog's brain that is devoted to analyzing smells is actually 40 times larger than that of a human! It's been estimated that dogs can identify smells somewhere between 1,000 to 10,000 times better than nasally challenged humans can.

Table: Scent-Detecting Cells in People and Dog Breeds

Species
Number of Scent Receptors

Humans
5 million

Dachshund
125 million

Fox Terrier
147 million

Beagle
225 million

German Shepherd
225 million

Bloodhound
300 million


----------



## bbsgarage (Oct 27, 2008)

I have had it explained to me this way,

when we walk into a pizzeria, we smell pizza.
they smell cheese, tomato sauce, flour, the last few hundred people that walked in, etc...

just to go along with all the techy stuff.


----------



## MustLoveGSDs (Oct 31, 2008)

Thank you everyone for the responses. I let my friend's daughter log on to my account here and try to get some answers. She is in 6th grade and has a deep passion for the GSD! Her family is involved in gsd rescue and fostering so she is learning a lot at a young age, I am proud of her!


----------

