How does a dog see and perceive the world?

Both humans and dogs perceive the world through their senses. However, we differ as to which one dominates our everyday life. For in humans, eyesight usually comes to the fore – we perceive the world mainly through looking. In dogs, the most important sense is smell – it often happens that we do not smell any smell, and our pet sniffs like crazy, looking for the source of some aroma. There are also some scents that dogs don’t like. The same is true with hearing – sometimes a person does not hear any sound, but the pooch is attentive to his ears, or vice versa – he crushes them or puts them on top of himself and it turns out that … half an hour later there is a storm! Another sense important for humans is touch , while in quadrupeds, more important is spatial perception . So let’s discuss all the dog’s senses in more detail.

SMELL

Smell is a dominant sense in dogs, so it should be mentioned that quadrupeds have about 40 times more olfactory receptors than humans – up to 300 million ! What does this mean in practice? If we feel any smell, e.g. of burnt dinner, our pet perceives it 40 times more! Moreover, it can also distinguish many other fragrances. Therefore, dogs are great at looking for missing people, explosives and drugs – also in places where there are many different elements. The sensitivity of their sense of smell means that dogs perceive the world mainly through smells. They can even recognize our emotions with the help of their sense of smell! When a person is stressed, he releases chemicals that the dog can sense perfectly, which can affect his behavior: your pet may be nervous, be more agitated or hide in corners. Dogs do not like such smells, which is especially visible in dogs that take part in competitions. If the handler is relaxed, motivated and full of vigor during training with his pet, the dog will be happy to work with him. When a person is stressed on the day of the competition, the dog senses his emotions and begins to avoid the owner, additionally moving away from him more and more. As a result, despite great results during training at competitions, it may be much worse.

Do dogs see their reflection in the mirror?

When talking about fragrances, research into self-awareness is also worth mentioning. The most famous of them are the so-called mirror test. During the research, it was proved that only humans and some species of monkeys are able to recognize their own form in the mirror. Dogs in such tests show negative results and cannot recognize their reflection. On the other hand, they perform excellently in tests of recognizing their own smell in a room – they easily distinguish the place where their fragrance was sprayed from the points where other aromas were placed.

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SIGHT

The second most important sense for dogs is sight. As predators, they are sensitive to contrast, movement and motor changes, which means that, for example, when a running antelope, wolf or squirrel suddenly appears on the screen, our pet can react vividly – run to the TV and stare at the running figure. However, this will not be a real concern, as the dog does not smell the pet and cannot really get close to it.

How does the dog see?

To illustrate this better, let’s explain it with… birds. They have excellent eyesight and can see in a very wide spectrum of colors. This is mainly due to the fact that, while flying, they must be sensitive to the colors and movements appearing on the ground (e.g. in order to hunt a mouse). Man has a much less developed sense of sight, while the dog – even less developed. Many owners therefore wonder if dogs can see colors. Our pets see the world in a much narrower range of colors than humans and birds, but as mentioned above, their eyes are very sensitive to contrasts and changes in the environment. This means that if something suddenly moves nearby, your dog will notice it! ? Very often there are also situations in which a person sees an object and it is obvious to him, while the dog is anxious, observes an object, e.g. a plastic bag flying in the air or a garbage bag standing by a tree, and starts barking at it. This behavior can also be caused by different perceptions of reality.

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