G L For Aunt Beth who said I always thought you should be a writer S To Harvey and Connor R
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Making Sense of Dog Senses There's a Wolf in the Living Room VISION Do You See What I See As Far as the Eye Can See Black and White and Gray All Over SMELL Follow My Nose One Big Nose You Can Run but You Can't Hide Sniffing Superpowers TASTE Pass the Poop Fido Has a Meat Tooth On the Tip of the Tongue 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 TOUCH Heat Seeking Noses Wired with Whiskers Perceptive Paws HEARING Hearing Superheroes All the Better to Hear You With Here Doggy Doggy CONCLUSION Do Dogs Have a Sixth Sense Through a Dog's Senses Senses Showdown Glossary Fetching Further Facts Index 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 48
4 Making Sense of Dog Senses Considering humans and dogs have been best friends for thousands of years we don't have very much in common Do you roll in poop and drink out of the toilet bowl Ew no way So why do dogs Because these behaviors make sense in a dog sense way INTRODUCTION We humans experience our environment using a combination of our main senses sight smell taste touch and hearing So do many other animals But every type of animal has a set of senses that is specially adapted to their habitat and behavior For example the ears of a tiny mouse are tuned to the high-pitched squeaks of other mice sounds too high for your ears And although you can't hear them the low-pitched rumbles of elephants can be captured by the ears of another elephant over 0.6 mi 1 km away EVERY DOG IS UNIQUE Just like us every dog is an individual with different sensory abilities For example not all dogs have exactly the same hearing Breeds with upright ears may be able to hear better than breeds with floppy ears And there is variation So how about dogs A dog's sense of smell is thousands and thousands of times more sensitive than yours Does that mean they have superpowered sight and hearing too How about touch and taste This book will explore these five senses as well as extra senses dogs might have that humans don't Dog gone it by the time you finish this book you'll be able to fully appreciate what the world feels like to our canine companions And you might even understand their love of poop rolling and toilet-water drinking between breeds for the other senses too Plus one dog might lose her sight with age while another might be born deaf So as you read keep in mind that the woof-tastic senses described in this book are generalities
MORE THAN FIVE SENSES This book focuses on the five main senses because they're the most well-known ones but people and dogs actually have more than five Scientists think there may be over 30 in total For example there's proprioception pro pree oh SEP shun which is your sense of where your body is in space It allows you to do things like touch your elbow with your eyes closed Some senses are ones you notice like knowing when you're hungry Others you don't notice like your body responding to the level of oxygen in your blood 5
