Canines Smell The World!

Or at least their part of it. And as it turns out, their sense of smell has direct connections to other familiar doggie traits—even tail wagging.

But before we get into the details...does this picture make my nose look big?

Anyway, this recent New York Times interview with Alexandra Horowitz, author of "Inside A Dog" explains just how much different a dog's sniffer is than our own, and exactly why our four-legged friends would enjoy "nose work" classes. Ms. Horowitz has a new book, "Being A Dog: Following the Dog Into A World of Smell", where she explains " the elegant engineering of the dog's olfactory system and how familiar canine behaviors — licking, sneezing, tail wagging — have associations with smell."

What surprised Parental Unit is that tail wagging is associated with smell via the dogs' anal glands: "dog's wag, basically dispensing their personal odors from their rumps," says Horowitz. Hmmm, the light's finally coming on for Parental Unit about all that canine butt sniffing I engage in...

Have any of our readers enrolled their dogs in nose work classes? Let us know!

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Dogs Versus Two-Year-Old: Can Or Should We Compare?

Well, I guess we can compare, or at least Alexandra Horowitz, an assistant professor of psychology at Barnard College and acclaimed author of "Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know" can compare the relative intelligence of your average dog and average two year old human. There's been a decent amount of discussion on the intelligence of canines recently, and the comparison of their intelligence relative to humans has been discussed in various articles by "experts" and lay people alike.

Drawing courtesy of Nishant Choksi/The New York Times

In the opinion section of today's New York Times, Ms. Horowitz, a researcher of canine cognition, takes a crack at understanding the similarities and differences in intelligence between the two species, courtesy of both amusing anecdotal evidence gathered from her own observations (she just happens to have a two year old son and a four year old dog), and scientific research on the subject. "My son kisses my scar. My dog licks my tears. Research says both grasp feelings. "But she appears to conclude that it does both the child and the dog a disservice to spend too much time studying a direct comparison: "You are no more doing your dog a kindness by treating him as a child than you would be in treating your child as a dog. Unless your kid really loves liver treats."

We'd love to hear your opinion on the matter-should we compare inter species intelligence...and if so, why?

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