Senses

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Domestic dogs have been selectively bred for millennia for various behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes.[1] Modern dog breeds show more variation in size, appearance, and behavior than any other domestic animal. Nevertheless, their morphology is based on that of their wild ancestors, gray wolves.[1] Dogs are predators and scavengers, and like many other predatory mammals, the dog has powerful muscles, fused wrist bones, a cardiovascular system that supports both sprinting and endurance, and teeth for catching and tearing. Dogs are highly variable in height and weight. The smallest known adult dog was a Yorkshire Terrier, that stood only 6.3 centimeters (2.5 in) at the shoulder, 9.5 cm (3.7 in) in length along the head-and-body, and weighed only 113 grams (4.0 oz). The largest known dog was an English Mastiff which weighed 155.6 kilograms (343 lb) and was 250 cm (98 in) from the snout to the tail.[2] The tallest dog is a Great Dane that stands 106.7 cm (42.0 in) at the shoulder.[3]

Vision

The colors of the rainbow as viewed by humans with no color vision deficiencies

Like most mammals, dogs are dichromats and have color vision equivalent to red-green color blindness in humans (deuteranopia).[4][5][6][7] Dogs are less sensitive to differences in grey shades than humans and also can detect brightness at about half the accuracy of humans.[8]

The dog’s visual system has evolved to aid proficient hunting.[4] While a dog’s visual acuity is poor (that of a poodle’s has been estimated to translate to a Snellen rating of 20/75[4]), their visual discrimination for moving objects is very high; dogs have been shown to be able to discriminate between humans (e.g., identifying their owner) at a range of between 800 and 900 m, however this range decreases to 500-600 m if the object is stationary.[4] Dogs have a temporal resolution of between 60 and 70 Hz, which explains why many dogs struggle to watch television, as most such modern screens are optimized for humans at 50–60 Hz.[8] Dogs can detect a change in movement that exists in a single diopter of space within their eye. Humans, by comparison, require a change of between 10 and 20 diopters to detect movement.[9][10]

Color approximation of the rainbow as viewed by a dog (deuteranopia)

As crepuscular hunters, dogs often rely on their vision in low light situations: They have very large pupils, a high density of rods in the fovea, an increased flicker rate, and a tapetum lucidum.[4] The tapetum is a reflective surface behind the retina that reflects light to give the photoreceptors a second chance to catch the photons. There is also a relationship between body size and overall diameter of the eye. A range of 9.5 and 11.6 mm can be found between various breeds of dogs. This 20% variance can be substantial and is associated as an adaptation toward superior night vision.[11]

The eyes of different breeds of dogs have different shapes, dimensions, and retina configurations.[12] Many long-nosed breeds have a “visual streak” – a wide foveal region that runs across the width of the retina and gives them a very wide field of excellent vision. Some long-muzzled breeds, in particular, the sighthounds, have a field of vision up to 270° (compared to 180° for humans). Short-nosed breeds, on the other hand, have an “area centralis”: a central patch with up to three times the density of nerve endings as the visual streak, giving them detailed sight much more like a human’s. Some broad-headed breeds with short noses have a field of vision similar to that of humans.[5][6] Most breeds have good vision, but some show a genetic predisposition for myopia – such as Rottweilers, with which one out of every two has been found to be myopic.[4] Dogs also have a greater divergence of the eye axis than humans, enabling them to rotate their pupils farther in any direction. The divergence of the eye axis of dogs ranges from 12-25° depending on the breed.[9]

Experimentation has proven that dogs can distinguish between complex visual images such as that of a cube or a prism. Dogs also show attraction to static visual images such as the silhouette of a dog on a screen, their own reflections, or videos of dogs; however, their interest declines sharply once they are unable to make social contact with the image.[13]

Hearing

The frequency range of dog hearing is approximately 40 Hz to 60,000 Hz,[14] which means that dogs can detect sounds far beyond the upper limit of the human auditory spectrum.[7][14][15] In addition, dogs have ear mobility, which allows them to rapidly pinpoint the exact location of a sound.[16] Eighteen or more muscles can tilt, rotate, raise, or lower a dog’s ear. A dog can identify a sound’s location much faster than a human can, as well as hear sounds at four times the distance.[16]

Smell

The wet, textured nose of a dog

While the human brain is dominated by a large visual cortex, the dog brain is dominated by an olfactory cortex.[4] The olfactory bulb in dogs is roughly forty times bigger than the olfactory bulb in humans, relative to total brain size, with 125 to 220 million smell-sensitive receptors.[4] The bloodhound exceeds this standard with nearly 300 million receptors.[4] Dogs can discriminate odors at concentrations nearly 100 million times lower than humans can.[17] The wet nose is essential for determining the direction of the air current containing the smell. Cold receptors in the skin are sensitive to the cooling of the skin by evaporation of the moisture by air currents.[18]

References & Notes:

1. Dewey, T. and S. Bhagat. 2002. “Canis lupus familiaris”, Animal Diversity Web.
2. “World’s Largest Dog”.
3. “Guinness World Records – Tallest Dog Living”. Guinness World Records. 31 August 2004.
4. Coren, Stanley (2004). How Dogs Think. First Free Press, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-2232-6.
5. A&E Television Networks (1998). Big Dogs, Little Dogs: The companion volume to the A&E special presentation. A Lookout Book. GT Publishing. ISBN 1-57719-353-9.
6. Alderton, David (1984). The Dog. Chartwell Books. ISBN 0-89009-786-0.
7. “Dr. P’s Dog Training: Vision in Dogs & People”. 1998.
8. Miklósi, Ádám. Dog, behavior, evolution, and cognition. Oxford Biology, 2009, p. 140.
9. Mech, David. Wolves, Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. The University of Chicago Press, 2006, p. 98.
10. Barking Orders. “A realistic look into the eyesight of a dog “, Barking Orders, The Canine School for Humans, March 10, 2010.
11. Miklósi, Ádám. Dog, behavior, evolution, and cognition. Oxford Biology, 2009, p. 139.
12. “Catalyst: Dogs’ Eyes”. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 25 September 2003.
13. Miklósi, Ádám. Dog, behavior, evolution, and cognition. Oxford Biology, 2009, p. 142.
14. Elert, Glenn; Timothy Condon (2003). “Frequency Range of Dog Hearing”. The Physics Factbook.
15. “How well do dogs and other animals hear”.
16. “Dog Sense of Hearing”. seefido.com.
17. “Smell”. nhm.org. 6 May 2004. Archived from the original on 1 August 2008.
18. Dijkgraaf S.;Vergelijkende dierfysiologie;Bohn, Scheltema en Holkema, 1978, ISBN 9031303224

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It uses material from the Wikipedia article Dog