How does my dog know where she's dropped her ball?
Discussion
My dog loves playing and especially with a (tennis-sized) ball. But she doesn't bring the ball back, she runs off with it and drops it somewhere. Now we might be in a big grassy field and she'll charge off and somewhere enroute will drop the ball. By the time she stops running about she might be a considerable distance from where she dropped it. However, with encouragement/nagging from me, she can get back to within a couple of feet of where she dropped it. How? One blade of grass looks much like another to me at least. Smell seems unlikely both because the wind direction seems irrelevant but also when she gets close she is clearly searching visually. Do dogs have some kind of in-built GPS? An Internet search seems to either return results about a different of ball dropping or about teaching your dog to bring the ball back.
Smell. I take my dog to scent classes with a search and rescue dog handler. The things my dog can find, which you would think impossible, is amazing. My favourite search was for a ten pound note in a plastic tube, in a hall where there had been 4 dog classes previously, so numerous smells everywhere.
To give you an idea of how amazing a dog's nose is. I was chatting to a SARDA dog handler on a missing persons search many years ago as at time I was considering training my black lab as one.
We got onto the topic of just how good they are at finding stuff. The handler explained that one had found a sunken fishing boat up in Scotland after a conventional sonar scan had failed to.
The team had the dog in the bow of the RIB and carried out a back and forth search pattern across the area. It was found in 10s of meters of water.
The dog had picked up on the decomposition gasses bubbling to the surface from the crew's bodies.
Incredible animals.
We got onto the topic of just how good they are at finding stuff. The handler explained that one had found a sunken fishing boat up in Scotland after a conventional sonar scan had failed to.
The team had the dog in the bow of the RIB and carried out a back and forth search pattern across the area. It was found in 10s of meters of water.
The dog had picked up on the decomposition gasses bubbling to the surface from the crew's bodies.
Incredible animals.
Our doggo does the same, he'll regularly sniff out a 'park' ball that another dog has previously lost, carry it around proudly and will drop it when he finds something that needs sniffiing. He'll get distracted and we'll have moved on ,maybe 100+yards, before he remembers he's not got the ball anymore. He'll then turn around and trot back to rediscover the ball with amazing accuracy and can find it again after a quick sniff. Does it all the time.
We assume he's got "the scent" for old balls and toys as he can locate other dogs old discarded balls in hedges, up trees and in the middle of bramble patches which means him and me working our way far enough in for him to them pick up, me scratched to feck, him happy as Larry.
We assume he's got "the scent" for old balls and toys as he can locate other dogs old discarded balls in hedges, up trees and in the middle of bramble patches which means him and me working our way far enough in for him to them pick up, me scratched to feck, him happy as Larry.
We have two spaniels. One is 12 years old and very sight compromised.
She will walk into doors at a new place really can't see well in any low light . She loves a game with a tennis ball in our garden. She can always find her ball even in flower beds and bushes , it nearly all smell . Older and most smelly ball is best .
She will walk into doors at a new place really can't see well in any low light . She loves a game with a tennis ball in our garden. She can always find her ball even in flower beds and bushes , it nearly all smell . Older and most smelly ball is best .
For us it’s hedgehogs. My dogs all Corgis will potter off outside at bedtime for a wee and a snuffle about. Same nearly every night, however if they go outside and then all run off at about 300 miles an hour into one of our fields then I know it’s time to get my shoes on to rescue a hedgehog. It’s bloody amazing that they do this purely on smell, the damm thing can be a good few hundred meters away and they can smell it instantly. They run straight to it in the dark and use it like a very prickly football 
.
Never any harm done, I think the prickles work very effectively on Corgi noses. Not idea why they do this but it’s a PITA.
. Never any harm done, I think the prickles work very effectively on Corgi noses. Not idea why they do this but it’s a PITA.
Can't explain how good it is but I was amazed the other day how cut off from the world they are when they can't smell. I was cutting a pork joint and giving the dog some scraps, threw a chunk of pork which bounced off her bowl and landed in her water. She stopped dead bemused at the disappearance of this chunk of pork, she sniffed around the bowl but got nothing so started barking and squatting on her front two legs at this witchcraft. Eventually I walked over and gave her the pork.
Either that or she's a dumb f
k.
Either that or she's a dumb f
k.I used to play a game with my parent's jack russell on their shingle driveway. I'd pick up a pebble and let her smell it in my hand and then holding her head between my legs so that she couldn't see I'd throw the pebble onto the shingle driveway behind her and then release her. She would track it down and find it in seconds
When charging around in the park, the grass might look the same to us, but the dog will have picked up loads of scent landmarks. They will remember running past the pee of dog X, the poo of a specific fox, then the stale poo of dog Y that was picked up 2 days ago but enough remains to leave a distinct smell.
I think it's literally impossible for us to imagine how a dog's nose perceives the world.
I think it's literally impossible for us to imagine how a dog's nose perceives the world.
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