Welcome to dog psychology
Articles Dog Psychology Article
This is a selection made from among articles on Articles Dog Psychology. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for future reading, click here.
Dogs & Open Car Windows
from:Experts estimate that dogs can catch a whiff of something that's one million times less concentrated than what humans can detect. With so much sniff power, it's hardly surprising that they stick their heads out car windows. They could care less about the scenery. What they're after are smells. If you're driving through town at 30 miles an hour and your dog has his nose out the window, he knows where the bakery is, where the butcher shop is, which street leads to the local McDonald's, and maybe even what the mayor had for breakfast.
Dogs assume a characteristic expression when they put their faces into the wind: Their upper
lips curl, their noses wrinkle, their eyes partly close, and their ears fold back. It looks as though they're experiencing a moment of ecstasy (which they probably are) but mainly they're concentrating. It's as though they're closing down all the rest of their senses to focus on this one.
There's a world of fascinating scents outside the car. This dog loves to hang her head out the window and sample every one of them. All dogs, from huge Great Danes to tiny terriers, have extraordinarily acute senses of smell. Their scenting ability is enhanced when they are moving quickly, which is one reason that they take advantage of open car windows.
Smells are so important to dogs that they have two separate systems for detecting them. One is the nose system. It consists of a huge amount of tissue called olfactory epithelium, which is loaded with scent receptors. This area takes up about 1/2 square inch in humans, but up to 20 square inches in some dog breeds. As air moves over the tissue, odor molecules settle in millions of scent receptors. The more air flow there is, the more scents dogs detect. A Dog's sense of smell is enhanced when they're moving quickly. In the evolutionary scheme of things, this probably made them better hunters because they could load up on scents while chasing prey.
Dogs have a second smelling system that's headquartered in their mouths. Near the upper
incisors is a tiny duct that leads to a specialized gland called Jacobson's organ. It's designed to capture and interpret the most primitive types of smells. Dogs depend on it to identify other
dogs, choose a mate, and smell prey. When dogs scrunch up their faces in the wind, it looks like they're catching flies, but what they're really doing is catching scents.
More Articles Dog Psychology Related Articles
The World According To Your Dog's Eyes
How Dogs Use Their Tails As Signals & Gestures Part 1
Understanding Your Dog's Hearing
Body Language Your Dog's Movements & What They Mean
Interesting Comparison Study With Wolves And Poodles
Contribute to our site : submit your Articles Dog Psychology Related Articles, SUBMIT Articles HERE
Latest Articles Dog Psychology News
Review: Bolt - Canada.com
 Canada.com | Review: Bolt Canada.com, Canada - For reasons of animal psychology, and perhaps Method acting -- 'if the dog believes it, the audience believes it,' says his director, an Actors Studio-type ... |
Till death do we bark - Medill Reports
Till death do we bark Medill Reports, IL - Though animal behavior gives no justification for dog weddings, humans dress their pets to their finest for the big day. Psychology studies conducted by ... |
New leash of life for former cancer sufferer Helen - WalesOnline
New leash of life for former cancer sufferer Helen WalesOnline, United Kingdom - She says: “But I’ve always had an affinity with dogs and did a dog psychology course. I started walking dogs for a lovely lady called Carol, ... |
Pets deserve pats for household health - Anchorage Daily News
Pets deserve pats for household health Anchorage Daily News, AK - We're down to two dogs and one cat. What he won't admit is that he enjoys them as much as I do. Judith Kleinfeld is a professor of psychology, ... |
Operation Autumn gets a thumbs-up - for now - TheDay
Operation Autumn gets a thumbs-up - for now TheDay, CT - By Kira Goldenberg Touched by the tale of Autumn, the stray dog who survived alone for a month as a cantaloupe-sized growth sprouted from her left hind leg, ... |