Into the Senses: A Journey into How Pets Perceive the World
You’ve heard some of the myths and facts about dogs’ sense of smell or cats’ eyesight. We know that animal perception is in some ways far superior to ours, but pet senses aren’t necessarily mysterious super powers! Keep reading for an overview of how our pets perceive the world.
A Cat’s Eye View
While it’s not exactly true that dogs only see in black and white or that cats can see even in the pitch dark, vision in pets has developed in tune with their ancestral navigation and hunting needs—and this does differ from human visual evolution.
You can get a photographic example of a dog’s visual perception at the London Natural History Museum website, which states that “Whereas human eyes contain three types of colour-detecting cells, called cones, dogs have just two…With fewer cone types, dogs can’t distinguish between as many colours as we can.” Similarly, cats see muted colors in general as well. Their vision helps them see subtle movements even at night, thanks to their eye structure’s ability to reflect light. They also have a protective eyelid layer that humans do not, making their eyesight more efficient than ours in many situations.
What’s That Sound?
Like eyesight, hearing in pets has evolved based on potential predator or prey needs. When you consider that a cat’s prey, for example, would be an animal that is quite small and light on its feet, it helps to be able to “pinpoint its location to within a few inches in a mere six one-hundredths of a second [and] identify the type and size of the prey emitting the noise.”
When it comes to training our pets, we rely heavily on audible cues. Through repetition and positive reinforcement, we can get our dogs, cats, birds, and other pets to recognize words and our desired behavior responses to them. This doesn’t mean that our pets are actually learning our languages, but they are able to distinguish sounds, tones, and pitches to discern various meanings. And yes, a high-pitched dog whistle can be picked up by their ears, even when humans can’t perceive the sound.
Infections, mites, and congenital deafness can be of concern when it comes to a pet’s ears; please reach out to us if you have questions about any issues such as these.
Those Amazing and Boopable Snoots
We don’t think of hound dogs as the best sniffers around for no reason; specifically, dogs’ sense of smell is “10,000 to 100,000 times as acute” as our own. This is due to differing aroma receptors in our anatomy, as well as differing air intake actions. When humans breathe, air and scent travel the same inhale pathway, but in dogs, air encounters a fold of nasal tissue and actually splits into two pathways: one for respiration and one for olfaction. This is why dogs can detect illicit substances, explosives, and even potentially signs of illness in seemingly impossible scenarios. They can recognize distinct odors, even in minute amounts amidst countless other scents.
You can do a deep dive into the amazing canine boopable snoot and the sense of smell in pets in this paper published on the National Library of Medicine website.
While these amazing aroma-detecting anatomical attributes are most often associated with dogs, other animals have developed super sniffers throughout evolution. Rats have been trained to sniff out landmines in conflict zones, and rabbits are known for constantly twitching their noses to get a sense of their surroundings. Cats are known to scent mark, and they have “almost 40 times more odour-sensitive cells than our human nose possesses.”
Do Pets Have Discerning Palates?
We know that pets of all types—dogs, cats, hamsters, birds, and beyond—often use their mouths to satisfy their curiosity about items they encounter in the world. This sense of taste in pets can get them into trouble if they ingest something poisonous or indigestible. Keep this pet emergency info handy, just in case!
But often, pets don’t enjoy a variety of flavors like we do. “In fact, while humans have roughly 9,000 taste buds, dogs have only around 1,700,” and it’s their sense of smell that can drive their appetites, even for trash or toxins that aren’t really edible. Dogs, cats, and certain other animals do have something that we don’t, however: an actual taste for water! Special taste buds at the tip of their tongues react to water and are even perhaps more sensitive after an animal eats food that may dehydrate them.
Wonderous Whiskers
Without shoes, our pets’ feet might make them constantly in touch (pun intended) with their worlds. That means they’re more sensitive to heat, cold, rough terrain, and sharp objects, even before we consider their overall sense of touch. And a pet’s skin generally has more nerve receptors than a human’s.
What about those whiskers, though? They aren’t there just to up the cute factor for dogs and cats! Whiskers are another way to feel vibrations, obstacles, and textures, particularly around the vulnerable areas of the face. In the dark or in confined spaces, a pet’s whiskers serve them well!
Note that animals might shed their whiskers, much like their fur, but you should never attempt to trim them. Whiskers are important for gathering information, so let them stay long!
If you want to stay in touch with your pet’s wellness, if you sniff out an issue, or if you just want to hear more about Animal Care Unlimited, please give us a call at (614) 766-2317!