Super Sniffers and Superheroes Deserve Waterproof Dog Beds

A dog’s sense of smell is incredibly accurate and their ability to communicate with humans means that in lots of areas they can outperform technology and medical experts. They can also sense when their owners are in trouble and regularly save lives by raising the alarm in times of need. Below are some amazing examples of just that.

Superior Sniffers

Everyone knows that a dog’s sense of smell trumps that of a human’s, the astounding part is the size of that gap. We have about 5 million scent receptors in our nose whereas the average dog has roughly 225 million. Bloodhounds even put that to shame with over 300 million scent receptors. They can also sniff comfortably faster than us at a rate of at least 5 to 6 times per second and can breathe separately at the same time.

Golden Retriever Lying Down with Nose to the Camera

Dogs can even detect diseases such as Malaria, Cancer, and Parkinsons’. At the University of Arkansas, dogs were shown to detect Thyroid Cancer at 88% accuracy using urine samples. They are capable of detecting Covid 19 too, at an accuracy of up to 94%. They can test significantly quicker than medical methods, at a rate of 300 patients in half an hour.

8-year-old Labrador Pal was awarded PDSA order of Merit in 2019 for sniffing out blood sugar level changes in his diabetic owner, Claire. She was unable to detect quickly enough when she became hypoglycaemic and her two sons would often come home to find her collapsed on the floor as a result. On his very first night with Claire, Pal woke her up by nudging her ribs with his nose and licking her after detecting chemical changes in her breath. He also acts as a ‘therapet’ for her PTSD and twice has alerted her on early signs of organ rejection of her new pancreas.

Puppy Licking an Iguana

In Germany, dogs are being used to sniff out endangered species living in potential construction sites before work begins. The detection of snakes, toads, bats, and lizards can take specialists up to a year whereas dogs reduce that timeframe to less than two months. Last year Elon Musk was forced to pause construction of his Tesla factory on the outskirts of Berlin after dogs detected Snakes and Lizards in the area.

Rescue Dogs

There are countless stories of dogs coming to the rescue of their owners when they notice something isn’t right. Here are just a couple of recent examples…

86 year-old Joyce Ackerley was attacked in her garden in Greater Manchester by a man trying to steal her necklace and was saved by Axel, her German shepherd-Akita-cross. The man hit her over the head with a broom and said “give me your jewels” before Axel charged, and jumped, knocking him onto his back. The man fled after shaking Axel off his arm, who returned with a bloody nose. Joyce took Axel in four years ago as a rescue dog and insists that day-to-day he’s a gentle giant.

German Shepherd Head Tilt

Only last month a 71-year-old man’s life was saved by his two dogs after falling unconscious in a remote part of the Lake District. The black Labrador ran after another walker they had recently passed and barked at her until she turned around and followed him. When she arrived she found the other dog waiting by the unconscious man and called 999. A medic escorted him down the hill to an Ambulance which took him to the hospital for further checks. Had he been by himself it could have been hours before someone passed.

Sweating through their Paws

Dogs don’t sweat like us, they use panting to cool themselves down instead. So if you notice your dog is panting it’s probably because they’re too hot. It’s easy to forget that they can’t just shed a layer as we would so they’re effectively wearing the same thick jumper inside with the radiators on as they are when they’re out on a walk in the middle of winter. Try and keep an eye on the thermostat when you’re in the same room as your dog, especially if they start panting.

Puppy Lick and Paw

The sweat that they do produce comes almost entirely through their paws. It’s one of the reasons that active dogs are better off with a waterproof dog bed. With a porous bed, paw sweat will be in direct contact with the surface of the material so if they’re hot it will seep through and into the inner stuffing, making it smell bad in no time. There’s not much point in having a durable dog bed if it stinks within a few months of buying it. Waterproof dog beds are better in the cold as well because they don’t retain moisture inside. It won’t take long for a wet dog from the park to dry up in their own body heat so if the temperature lowers (E.g. in the kennel overnight) then the moisture will be long gone instead of being retained like a sponge in a non-waterproof dog bed.

Good Boy

The relationship between dogs and humans started through mutual benefit thousands of years ago when canines helped hunt for food in return for scraps, but it has become so much more than that now. It’s a form of trust, built by evolution, and fostered over the generations to the point of both sides craving the bond for the sake of it. It’s easy to get annoyed at certain habits day-to-day, but it’s in their DNA and it comes from a good place. When they bark at the postman and other dogs on the street they are protecting you and your family. When they bring back a stick, they are providing firewood or building materials. When they chase rabbits and squirrels, they are helping provide food because quite frankly, you’re too slow. It’s a deeply rooted friendship, created over thousands of years through natural selection, and is considered to be the closest connection between any two species in the history of the world.

Good Boy