[presidio9]

PING

[Joe 6-pack]

A Schutzhund trainer I once knew told me that for comparison, the average human has approximately five million scent receptor cells over app. 1 sq. inch of nasal tissue.

The average shepherd has app. 150 million cells located on app. 6 square inches...no wonder they're noses are just a little better than ours...

[JoeGar]

Scientists have recently discovered that dogs can distinguish, with almost unerring accuracy, between breath samples from people with lung cancer and from people without.

This must be a recent discovery for the New York Times only. I remember seeing a TV show years ago about using dogs to sniff for skin cancer and TB.

[alwaysconservative]

I think that, like other senses, we've been trained by society to ignore certain sensory clues, so what sense perception we do have has been made subordinate to other clues. My dog relies heavily on smell, and I am trying to learn to be more alert in this area as well.