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I've had dogs for a while, and at least for my dogs they use their eyes and ears more than their noses. I've tested this a few times with steak, and using their
by mannyv 4y ago
I've had dogs for a while, and at least for my dogs they use their eyes and ears more than their noses. I've tested this a few times with steak, and using their nose is a last resort tactic.
- illiarian 4y agoIt's likely an optimization: if you see your prey/steak, you don't need smell to follow it. Brains (not just dogs') are full of such optimizations.
- jaggederest 4y agoAlso, some breeds of dog are more behaviorally driven by scent or vision, and the morphology of their nose and face matter too. Some dogs are "sighthounds", the greyhound being the classic example, which primarily orient on vision and use speed to hunt, some are "scent hounds" the bloodhound being sort of the canonical example, which use scent tracking and endurance rather than speed.
- rolenthedeep 4y agoI've been doing nose training with my dog. She's got the idea of the game and she's definitely quicker to use scent, but still prefers to just look. She acts like it's a lot more effort to sniff something out. Maybe in a home environment there's too many other scents and she has to be right on top of the treat to find it? Who knows.