The Sweet Way Dogs Use Their Noses To Know When You’ll Be Home From Work
Their adorable noses wield a canine superpower.
marialevkina / Shutterstock Your dog knows you better than anyone else, because they love you the most. They’re attuned to your daily rhythms, observing your behavior to build a routine.
They notice when the sky gets darker, meaning it’s time to snuggle up and get some belly scratches. They know that the rising sun means it’s morning, and that means it’s time for you to wake up and feed them immediately.
There’s one specific part of your day that dogs know by heart, or rather, by nose.
Dogs use their noses to know when you’re coming home from work.
Our canine companions use their finely-tuned sense of smell as a way to tell time. They don’t know how to read a clock or hit the snooze button for a few extra minutes of cuddles, but they do have a sense of time passing.
You might wonder what your dog does when you leave the house. Do they become masters of their domain, exploring every room, hunting for morsels of food you dropped or the toy they hid under the couch? Do they lie at the front door, staring wistfully, as their ennui builds?
However your dog spends their solo staycation, one thing is certain: They know when you’re coming home.
All humans have a unique smell that dogs can identify and differentiate between, which is how they know who we are. Our natural scent is one way that they stay connected to us.
Dog's noses are designed to be attuned to chemical communication. They have an extra olfactory tool called Jacobsen’s organ that boosts their sniffy powers. This special tool is located inside their nasal cavity, and it opens into the roof of their mouth, behind their upper incisors.
Dogs can smell up to 12 miles away. It’s estimated that they can smell between 1,000 to 10,000 times better than we can.
They rely on our smell for more than just picking us out of a crowd: They use our smell to determine where we are, gauging our proximity by the strength of our odor.
Dogs measure our scent to predict when we’re coming to rescue them from solitude.
When we’re home, bed rotting in our sweatpants, or eating ice cream straight from the carton because we’re adults and no one can stop us, our scent is the strongest.
Once we leave, our smell weakens, dissipating over the course of the day. This means dogs know when we’ve been away for a long time, just by sniffing the air.
They can move their nostrils one at a time, a genius adaptation that allows them to determine which direction a smell is coming from.
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The way scent travels gives dogs crucial intel about our location. When we’re on our way home, heading toward the front door, our smell wafts through the air, growing stronger the closer we get. As our smells intensify, our dogs realize we’re nearby, and it’s time for them to reap loving chaos.
They might wag their tails with devoted anticipation or bark their joyful greeting, all while their noses sniff over time, ready to welcome you into their furry embrace.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture and all things to do with the entertainment industry.