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Memorizing 100 names for things might seem like a big deal, but I guarantee that all dogs have memory for 100+ smells associated with things. They would call us

Memorizing 100 names for things might seem like a big deal, but I guarantee that all dogs have memory for 100+ smells associated with things. They would call us stupid for not being able to remember the smell of more than a few dozen objects. My point: don't judge intelligence based on how well an animal can replicate human behavior. Each of them can do things that make us look like the idiots.

xeonmc 3y ago
What do you mean fish are not stupid for being unable to climb trees?
newman8r 3y ago
Birds are able to do it as well, this popular bird on youtube seems to know at least that many words https://www.youtube.com/@ApolloandFrens https://www.youtube.com/@ApolloandFrens
nicklecompte 3y ago
It wasn't clear to me from this that these dogs had any special cognitive abilities, as opposed to neurosensory abilities, e.g. maybe most dogs can't audibly distinguish human vowels and consonants well enough for this to work.
- RoyalHenOil 3y ago
  I wonder this as well. In my experience, dogs have a MUCH easier time learning hand signals than learning verbal cues. I wonder if dogs would generally be capable of learning many more words if they were taught in sign language.
rashkov 3y ago
I wonder if something like synesthesia could help them map language to smells
pazimzadeh 3y ago
Who can't remember the smell of more than a few dozen objects?
- kevinmchugh 3y ago
  Yeah, and humans can identify different hops or chocolate or coffee beans by smell. We can't track very well but still have pretty sophisticated noses
- sandworm101 3y ago
  We remember scents. We remember how chocolate smells. We do not smell well enough to associate smell with a particular object. Then, in turn, our brains are not hardwired to associate specific smells to specific objects. Look at our memory for faces. It isn't all about eyesight. Our brains have specific circuitry for faces. Dogs have the same for smell. Sensitivity is one thing, how the brain is wired is another.
  - robocat 3y ago
    > Then, in turn, our brains are not hardwired to associate specific smells to specific objects. I think you are speculating cause. Culturally we tend not to communicate much about smells - it could just as easily be that most of us have the ability but it is never trained because it isn't much use to us. Anecdotally I know people with a wide range of different olfactory abilities. It is interesting to try and think of how we could test for the ability. Perhaps not testing for my pencil, but something else - a child - a dog - shoes - urine.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
    > We remember how chocolate smells. I rememeber: * how English Cadbury's smells * how El Rey Cordoba milk chocolate (from Venezuela) smells * how Hershey's smells * how hot chocolate made with Swiss Miss mix smells * how Toblerone smells I could go on.
    - newman8r 3y ago
dj_mc_merlin 3y ago
> They would call us stupid for not being able to remember the smell of more than a few dozen objects. Dogs obviously have incredibly more advanced olfactory systems but I feel like you're downplaying humans here. I'm pretty sure there's hundreds of very specific smells I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells and there's a lot of things.
- BytesAndGears 3y ago
  Plus the whole feeling of “I just smelled this thing and it reminds me of my aunt’s house, who died 35 years ago”. I think it’s pretty established that humans are very good with smell. We just aren’t very sensitive compared to dogs
  - aqfamnzc 3y ago
    I recently started swimming for fitness after not doing so since 10 years ago in high school. I get a rush of nostalgia and a good feeling whenever I catch a whiff of chlorine on my hands or hair throughout the day.
- tapland 3y ago
  Just yesterday i experienced the smell that was just like the apples from a tree in our yard 25 years ago. There are easily many hundreds of unique smells we can identify.
- thfuran 3y ago
  The ability to remember specific sensory impressions just is not the same thing as sensory acuity. People can remember a bunch of things, but our noses aren't nearly as sensitive as dogs'.
- sandworm101 3y ago
  >> I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells Those are classes of things, not specific objects. We all know the smell of erasers, but can we identify the smell of a specific eraser? Part of it is sensitivity but it is also largely that our brains are not designed to associate smells with individual objects. Think of how we handle faces, which we can spot even if at a different orientation than we have seen before. Or how we can hear a specific voice amongst a crowd. Dogs do that with scent profiles.
ghshephard 3y ago
This was an interesting article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-smell-better-dog-180963391/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-s... "According to McGann, our olfactory inferiority is nothing but a 150-year-old myth born of erroneous assumptions and faulty science."
- fnordpiglet 3y ago
  Why do we have K9 search and rescue dogs and drug sniffers instead of just having police officers sniffing everyone’s luggage? The answer from the article is, essentially, because dogs are much better at odor detection than us. It weirdly seems to say because we have the ability to sense odors we are better than we think we are, which implies we think we can’t smell at all or something. But dogs are much much better than us.
  - ghshephard 3y ago
    The article made a quite different argument than "dogs are much better at odor detection than us" - that is contrary to what the research shows. Humans have much better ability to smell some things than dogs do, but, dogs are (as you noted) capable of smelling some things better than humans.
    - fnordpiglet 3y ago
      They make some squinty suppositions from some limited studies that suggest dogs (which can smell cannabis flowers) can’t smell flowers better humans etc. But then they conclude with this statement that sort of refutes the entire premise: “”” Besides having more olfactory receptor cells than humans, dogs also boast a specialized snout adapted to methods of breathing that deliver a steadier stream of information-rich scent. Dogs and some other animals even experience scent differently. Their olfactory system allows them to smell liquid phase chemicals that aren't airborne—think of layers of urine and other liquids on your neighborhood fire hydrant—by working like a pump to deliver them to a specialized nasal organ. “”” Which is pretty indicative that as everyone knows from daily experience with dogs, dogs are better at smelling things than humans. There may be a range over which that superiority falters at some chemicals but I saw nothing other than headlines and pop science supposition that indicates humans are superior at smelling than dogs.
samatman 3y ago
While it is of course true that humans can smell less acutely than dogs, I'm fairly confident that the number of odors I can remember is somewhere in the low thousands.
araes 3y ago
A quick search to WP Dog Intelligence [1] will quickly note that there have been cases of 1,000 words and this is actually fairly well known. It's perhaps interesting that researches are confirming anecdotal reports online, although as noted in another comment below, there are 10M+ videos from multiple channels all on the same subject. I donno, it's like humans are just realizing animals might not be that less intelligent. Parrots ask existential questions. Prior research on dog language: "2008, Betsy, a Border Collie, knew over 345 words by the retrieval test, and she was also able to connect an object with a photographic image of the object, despite having seen neither before." (mentioned in article) "Rico initially knew the labels of over 200 items [and] inferred the names of novel items by exclusion" "2013, a Border Collie, "Chaser", who had learned the names and could associate by verbal command over 1,000 words[...], and [was] capable of linking nouns to verbs" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_intelligence#Learning_and_using_words https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_intelligence#Learning_and_...

xeonmc 3y ago

What do you mean fish are not stupid for being unable to climb trees?

newman8r 3y ago

Birds are able to do it as well, this popular bird on youtube seems to know at least that many words https://www.youtube.com/@ApolloandFrens https://www.youtube.com/@ApolloandFrens

nicklecompte 3y ago

It wasn't clear to me from this that these dogs had any special cognitive abilities, as opposed to neurosensory abilities, e.g. maybe most dogs can't audibly distinguish human vowels and consonants well enough for this to work.

RoyalHenOil 3y ago
I wonder this as well. In my experience, dogs have a MUCH easier time learning hand signals than learning verbal cues. I wonder if dogs would generally be capable of learning many more words if they were taught in sign language.

rashkov 3y ago

I wonder if something like synesthesia could help them map language to smells

pazimzadeh 3y ago

Who can't remember the smell of more than a few dozen objects?

kevinmchugh 3y ago
Yeah, and humans can identify different hops or chocolate or coffee beans by smell. We can't track very well but still have pretty sophisticated noses
sandworm101 3y ago
We remember scents. We remember how chocolate smells. We do not smell well enough to associate smell with a particular object. Then, in turn, our brains are not hardwired to associate specific smells to specific objects. Look at our memory for faces. It isn't all about eyesight. Our brains have specific circuitry for faces. Dogs have the same for smell. Sensitivity is one thing, how the brain is wired is another.
- robocat 3y ago
  > Then, in turn, our brains are not hardwired to associate specific smells to specific objects. I think you are speculating cause. Culturally we tend not to communicate much about smells - it could just as easily be that most of us have the ability but it is never trained because it isn't much use to us. Anecdotally I know people with a wide range of different olfactory abilities. It is interesting to try and think of how we could test for the ability. Perhaps not testing for my pencil, but something else - a child - a dog - shoes - urine.
- PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
  > We remember how chocolate smells. I rememeber: * how English Cadbury's smells * how El Rey Cordoba milk chocolate (from Venezuela) smells * how Hershey's smells * how hot chocolate made with Swiss Miss mix smells * how Toblerone smells I could go on.
  - newman8r 3y ago

dj_mc_merlin 3y ago

> They would call us stupid for not being able to remember the smell of more than a few dozen objects. Dogs obviously have incredibly more advanced olfactory systems but I feel like you're downplaying humans here. I'm pretty sure there's hundreds of very specific smells I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells and there's a lot of things.

BytesAndGears 3y ago
Plus the whole feeling of “I just smelled this thing and it reminds me of my aunt’s house, who died 35 years ago”. I think it’s pretty established that humans are very good with smell. We just aren’t very sensitive compared to dogs
- aqfamnzc 3y ago
  I recently started swimming for fitness after not doing so since 10 years ago in high school. I get a rush of nostalgia and a good feeling whenever I catch a whiff of chlorine on my hands or hair throughout the day.
tapland 3y ago
Just yesterday i experienced the smell that was just like the apples from a tree in our yard 25 years ago. There are easily many hundreds of unique smells we can identify.
thfuran 3y ago
The ability to remember specific sensory impressions just is not the same thing as sensory acuity. People can remember a bunch of things, but our noses aren't nearly as sensitive as dogs'.
sandworm101 3y ago
>> I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells Those are classes of things, not specific objects. We all know the smell of erasers, but can we identify the smell of a specific eraser? Part of it is sensitivity but it is also largely that our brains are not designed to associate smells with individual objects. Think of how we handle faces, which we can spot even if at a different orientation than we have seen before. Or how we can hear a specific voice amongst a crowd. Dogs do that with scent profiles.

ghshephard 3y ago

This was an interesting article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-smell-better-dog-180963391/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-s... "According to McGann, our olfactory inferiority is nothing but a 150-year-old myth born of erroneous assumptions and faulty science."

fnordpiglet 3y ago
Why do we have K9 search and rescue dogs and drug sniffers instead of just having police officers sniffing everyone’s luggage? The answer from the article is, essentially, because dogs are much better at odor detection than us. It weirdly seems to say because we have the ability to sense odors we are better than we think we are, which implies we think we can’t smell at all or something. But dogs are much much better than us.
- ghshephard 3y ago
  The article made a quite different argument than "dogs are much better at odor detection than us" - that is contrary to what the research shows. Humans have much better ability to smell some things than dogs do, but, dogs are (as you noted) capable of smelling some things better than humans.
  - fnordpiglet 3y ago
    They make some squinty suppositions from some limited studies that suggest dogs (which can smell cannabis flowers) can’t smell flowers better humans etc. But then they conclude with this statement that sort of refutes the entire premise: “”” Besides having more olfactory receptor cells than humans, dogs also boast a specialized snout adapted to methods of breathing that deliver a steadier stream of information-rich scent. Dogs and some other animals even experience scent differently. Their olfactory system allows them to smell liquid phase chemicals that aren't airborne—think of layers of urine and other liquids on your neighborhood fire hydrant—by working like a pump to deliver them to a specialized nasal organ. “”” Which is pretty indicative that as everyone knows from daily experience with dogs, dogs are better at smelling things than humans. There may be a range over which that superiority falters at some chemicals but I saw nothing other than headlines and pop science supposition that indicates humans are superior at smelling than dogs.

samatman 3y ago

While it is of course true that humans can smell less acutely than dogs, I'm fairly confident that the number of odors I can remember is somewhere in the low thousands.

araes 3y ago

A quick search to WP Dog Intelligence [1] will quickly note that there have been cases of 1,000 words and this is actually fairly well known. It's perhaps interesting that researches are confirming anecdotal reports online, although as noted in another comment below, there are 10M+ videos from multiple channels all on the same subject. I donno, it's like humans are just realizing animals might not be that less intelligent. Parrots ask existential questions. Prior research on dog language: "2008, Betsy, a Border Collie, knew over 345 words by the retrieval test, and she was also able to connect an object with a photographic image of the object, despite having seen neither before." (mentioned in article) "Rico initially knew the labels of over 200 items [and] inferred the names of novel items by exclusion" "2013, a Border Collie, "Chaser", who had learned the names and could associate by verbal command over 1,000 words[...], and [was] capable of linking nouns to verbs" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_intelligence#Learning_and_using_words https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_intelligence#Learning_and_...