We’ve all done it. We return home to find our pups waiting for us by the door, as if they knew before we did that we’d leave work early that day, and we make a mental note: this dog is beyond special, she’s almost otherworldly. The anecdotal evidence among dog-owners of their furry friends sensing future events is everywhere. Distressed behavior preceding earthquakes and storms. Advanced knowledge of sicknesses or pregnancies. Dogs that can sniff out bad people, bad days and even ghosts. The science around proving these claims has been much hazier, though, with most scientists concluding that rather than dogs possessing actual psychic abilities, they are simply animals whose heightened senses of hearing and smell (not to mention intelligence and empathy) give them certain abilities that, while not technically magical, are reminiscent of the same mythologies surrounding our favorite superheroes. So move over Superman, you’ve got nothing on Fido!

1. DOGS AND THEIR
SIXTH SENSE
Adam Croman

2. We’ve all done it. We return home to find our pups
waiting for us by the door, as if they knew before we
did that we’d leave work early that day, and we make
a mental note: this dog is beyond special, she’s almost
otherworldly.
Most scientists conclude that rather than dogs
possessing actual psychic abilities, they are simply
animals whose heightened senses of hearing and smell
(not to mention intelligence and empathy) give them
certain abilities that, while not technically magical, are
reminiscent of the same mythologies surrounding our
favorite superheroes.

3. What a Dog Smells
A dog’s sense of
smell is between
10,000 to 100,000
times more acute
than a human’s
capabilities
They contain up to
300 million olfactory
receptors in their
noses (compared to
our 5 million), which
are structured
differently than ours,
allowing separate flow
paths for breathing
and olfaction
Storm prediction is
largely attributed to
dogs’ ability to smell
chemical changes in
the air, particularly
faraway traces of
ozone, a byproduct of
lightning
Dogs can also smell
changes in our health
Service dogs have
been trained to alert
owners to
emergencies such as
diabetic attacks and
seizures, and many
believe that dogs
become more
protective of their
pregnant owners

4. What a Dog Hears
Dogs hear four times the distance of an average human
They can also hear higher-pitched sounds and detect a larger
frequency range than us
Your dog can identify the specific sounds of your car and your
footsteps and hear them from an impressive distance
Dr. Stanley Coren asserts that a dog’s
earthquake detection skills can also be
attributed to their ability to hear tectonic
shifting
In a 2012 study, 49 percent of the nearly 200
dogs studied showed a marked increase in
anxiety the day before an earthquake

5. What a Dog Sees
A dog’s vision is generally
considered to be worse than its
human counterpart because dogs
can’t see well up close or far away
A recent study
found, however, that
they also have
ultraviolet vision,
meaning your dog
may see things that
are invisible to you.

6. For more
information
Please visit:
http://adamcroman.com/