Dog Senses

Dog senses are finely tuned instruments that let him know whether danger is approaching or a friend is near.

Just watch your dog when he hears something. All of these come into play as he sniffs the air, watches and listens carefully. If someone is approaching, he will bark. If all is well, he will relax.

Let's start with the first dog sense, his ears. Canines have excellent hearing.

They can hear far greater distances than we can. Which is why your dog will start barking and you don't hear anything. But he does.

As dogs talk to each other, they hear the barking of other dogs by pitch, tone and frequency of the sounds. They all have different meanings to your pet.

Notice that your pet's ears move constantly. They can be straight up or forward, meaning he hears something.

Slightly to the side, not too big of a deal. Ears back and relaxed will show contentment.

Of course, the ears show other emotions which we will get into in the Body Language section.

Although his voice is not a dog sense, it is his best communication device. Barking, whining, howling, all mean something.

Barking can express many things from alerting you when someone is around, telling you he's hungry or just to "talk".

Our dog Lady, likes to carry on a conversation with us by combining barking, howling and woofing whenever we ask her questions.

When your pet whines, he wants attention. The whine, added to soulful eyes is a real heart grabber. And they know it works, we give them whatever they want.

If you scold your dog, don't be surprised if he lets out a little growling/whining complaint.

I call this sassing you back. Our Sheltie does this and I shake a finger at him and tell him "don't sass me, little man" and he droops his head and goes about his business.

Dogs have an excellent sense of smell. Even when sleeping, their noses are always twitching, catching a scent.

All animals give off odors. We humans can scrub our self out of our skin and still emit a smell to dogs and other critters.

A dog can tell if a human is nervous or afraid, unhappy, in a good mood or any number of emotions we go through just by his sense of smell.

Dogs mark their territory by urinating on just about everything. This marking, along with other dog's, lets the rest of the canine world know he's been there.

So a dog's nose can tell him who has just passed by, how long ago, how old and what sex the other dog was.

Even though a dog's ears and nose are highly conductive to noises and smells, his eyesight is not very good.

There is some controversy as to whether dogs can see colors. It has been found that they see in shades of grey and faded green and red.

Dogs can see better at night than during the day and have better peripheral vision than humans do.

Your pet depends on his hearing and sense of smell to let him know who or what is nearby. His vision comes into play when the visitor is close enough to see.

It is interesting to see how a dog communicates using his senses. Now you have a better understanding why he behaves the way he does around the house and out in public.