Inside of a Dog -- Young Readers Edition: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know

If a dog meets another who might be a threat, he wants to appear to be a big, powerful creature, so he makes a big-dog sound, a low growl.

Your dog is responding to the sounds that you make and the tone of your voice, not to the meaning of your words.

if you want your dog to sit, try using a lower-pitched command that drops near the end. This is a tone that might be more likely to help a dog relax.

Dogs seem more interested in high-pitched sounds than in lower ones. They’ll come more quickly in response to high-pitched, repeated calls than to calls at a lower pitch.

They are nearly as good as we are at noticing changes in pitch.

In one study, the dogs made 1,272 attempts to detect which patients had cancer—and missed only fourteen times. In another experiment, they sniffed out the cancer every time.

Researchers have begun training dogs to recognize a particular smell—one produced by cancer tissue.

Their ears are terrifically long, but this isn’t to make them hear better. Instead, a slight swing of the head sets these ears in motion, fanning up more scented air for the nose to catch. Their constant stream of drool is also a perfect way for the dog to gather up smells in the air and bring them to the vomeronasal organ.

If we touch something soft—a slipper, say—and we spend a lot of time touching it, it will become a part of us to a creature of the nose. For your dog, your slipper is a part of you.