How Powerful Is a Dog's Nose? | Inside the Animal Mind | BBC Earth

Just how powerful is a dog's sense of smell? Today, search dog Fern is going to test out her senses to see if she can find a canister filled with pork meat - in the middle of a lake, under 7 meters of water and mud.
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[@Paulie1232]

My dog knows when I'm going to fart, she leaves.

[@northwestkathleen1124]

ROFL!!

[@elvispresley1085]

Yawn. Idiot

[@cop1130]

Impressive

[@angiekelley9038]

She's such a good girl.

[@neilpowell8740]

I apologise for the confusion about the lakes dimensions. It was a genuine mistake by the narrator. Castlewellan Lake is in Co Down and is approx 1 mile long and in places approx half a mile wide. Fern , who is now 17 years old and retired, has located 14 bodies in water, so yes, dogs are amazing.

[@adblocker276]

Amazing dog

[@Vejur9000]

My god. One of natures great superpowers, is canine.

[@rahulrai5464]

It's not the narrator u idiot it was the script writer who wrote it, he was just reading it verbatim. Don't u know u dummy ? And if u don't know now I know how it works

[@stevenhall100]

Just stunning animals aren't they, well done fern

[@shaungordon9737]

Omg, that is incredible. And just the way she works with the crew is amazing too

[@oktomcat]

This is amazing and also good news for many search and rescue crews.

[@moondancejackson5081]

I am so impressed and totally in love with Fern!

[@Zavarzin]

1:23 -- "The lake is a mile long and half a mile wide"; 3:10 -- "In a lake a kilometer wide and half a kilometer long". Wut?

[@HeavyProfessor]

Ivan Zavarzin lol thanks for pointing that out

[@niilo5639]

@@HeavyProfessor i was also confused

[@HeavyProfessor]

@@niilo5639 yes, it's a weird blunder. Just shows that they were filming at some random place and just making up facts and figures for the narration.

[@pharnstv4818]

@@HeavyProfessor thanks Einstein.. U fools a proof all people in internet just looking for each others fault and acting have pHd in bulsshits..

[@HeavyProfessor]

@@pharnstv4818 I am not the one who pointed it out

[@BANVA-io4bf]

What a super good girl :’)

[@sky_styles9009]

Jeeezzzzz... I can't believe how strong their nose scent is.

[@uberpye]

good dog, best friend

[@sourdurian2839]

this is freaking insane!

[@sdimas73]

I saw on the weather channel here in the US on "How to Survive": One of the advice is when you go hiking to leave a dirty sock on your car dashboard so police dog can follow your trail in case you get lost.

[@madbros5613]

Jezus thx good advice!

[@agbehr9247]

I really love dogs thank you for helping them help us u made me love dogs more....

[@josecarlosmonfortcalderon236]

Fantástico,un buen trabajo..

[@clint_6636]

Absolutely amazing

[@Panthers1521]

unbelievable

[@uptownphotography]

Definitely amazing. Cool dog too... All the best to all involved. Philip NYC Area

[@jeanetperico]

Cute doggie&Nice place :)

[@gamesbeingplayed3734]

That’s crazy! A dog is so amazing it’s sad some people eat them

[@MuhammadEgypt]

Amazing! They can find the drowned bodies then.

[@NickNicometi]

I just cannot wrap my head around canine olfaction.

[@jackg2630]

I wonder what that feels like, they say that in the same way we have dexterity in our hands, they have that same control with scent. They literally smell better than they see which is pretty crazy to wrap your head around as they see better than humans

[@jdtv50]

Dogs see u astrally project every night and even that you don’t see lol doggos are the best

[@NickNicometi]

IDK, haven't seen many pup paintings.

[@kkdesignservices183]

Good girl! Dogs are just the best.

[@Kaei7]

where is this? it's so beautiful

[@geoffjoffy]

Incredible.

[@user-kh4we2ti9z]

thats nuts!!!

[@jussikankinen9409]

Without dogs humans would be living in caves

[@HulkVahkiin]

Dogs are amazing

[@arbanaskocudo]

Shark also has great sense of smell but again you cant train him

[@kefkapalazzo1]

Lmao imagine if we could train sharks to help with deep sea rescues. Would be game changing

[@illwillillwill4413]

Amazing

[@wendyspedale1501]

Good gurl!!!!

[@sn0w1et]

Springer spaniels are the best

[@pimpstafruitwala2921]

sike

[@RRJRRJ]

Great video content! Excuse me for butting in, I would appreciate your initial thoughts. Have you heard about - Sonsaiah Nonpareil Superiority (erm, check it on google should be there)? It is an awesome one off product for attracting amazing ladies using this simple pheromone trick without the normal expense. Ive heard some interesting things about it and my cousin at last got great results with it.

[@enriktigasna]

ok

[@kefkapalazzo1]

Crazy what animals can be capable of even us. Look at how long we can run

[@brannigan9]

I need this dog

[@brannigan9]

I was thinking keys and phone

[@northwestkathleen1124]

Incredible! Half a MILE or half a kilometer?? that's confusing......

[@apexxxx10]

*Dog lovers love volvo*

[@321womble]

I wonder the emotional effect on dogs searching for cadavers?

[@jacklancer3401]

Isn't this like dowsing rods? Dogs can read human body language so may read his cues if he knows where it is located.

[@HeavyProfessor]

Yes, it's fake

[@matthenley3886]

I don’t think they knew where it was though, it was the other boat that had the tracker.

[@marieindia8116]

No, dowsing rods use spiritism to try to locate water. This dog is using physical powers of scent to track the meat THROUGH water. Very different. Also, the dog was watching the water, not her trainer.

[@Amber-rt9mj]

2:33 hey human, it's here! it's here! damnit i said it's here! stop speaking to the camera, we have work to do!

[@zaimaziz6412]

Subhanallah

[@mow1416]

And I thought superman had super powers!

[@24DaniS24]

This is extremely difficult for me to believe… the damn pork is in a can at the bottom of a lake, there should be like .1% chance of ANY of the odorous molecules reaching even close to the top of the water and beyond, especially when it’s raining. I mean, unless that’s a special dog who can smell 100x better than the average dog… that’s literally insane. No.

[@RottiesRuckus]

I do scent work as a sport with my Rottweiler and thus, have some insight into how extraordinary and remarkable canine olfactory ability truly is. In tests, dogs have been able to detect a chemical in a solution diluted to 1-2 parts/trillion. While our brain has a big area devoted to vision, dogs have a big portion dedicated to olfaction: 40% more of a dog’s brain than a human’s focuses on smell. While the average person has 5M smell receptors, a dog, depending on its breed, has 125-250M (with Bloodhounds having 300M). Fern is absolutely for real!

[@Undercover5100]

​@@RottiesRuckusI agree. In a weird way, I feel like I have dog senses, especially when I can sense certain foods that the deli at my job would fix. It doesn't hurt to let it out of your system every once in a while.

[@fproszek]

I screamed at the boston bomber cops on my tv. 19 hours, hundreds of swat cops, not one dog. Bomber was bleeding when he ran from his car, he was found 1/2 mile away (not by cops), how long do you think it would have taken for a plain beagle to find him? Did anyone get fired?

[@wydleir]

First think about the laws of physics. How do the molecules of meat succeed in rising vertically through all the water so that they sit directly on top of the can that they came out of? Then think about the dog's relationship to its handler - who is there in the boat instructing the guy with the tiller and who was the one who put the can of meat into the lake in the first place.

[@spitfiremj10]

+Clive Wynne I work with organisations that train detection dogs all around the world and agree that it would have been a much better demonstration if the location of the can of meat was totally unknown to the handler. But remember that this was only a demonstration to show how good a dogs nose is. Clever Hans springs to mind

[@hull294]

They didn't say that the handler knew where it was only that its position was known... that could have been by the Dive team who had the GPS

[@snagcreek3204]

Clive Wynne

[@AnecdotalAvery]

No way…

[@khumanshusingh]

hello

[@Jonayofsweden]

Thank god my smell isn't that good ^^

[@user-tu4vn3tc6z]

+Jonayofsweden yeah i can smell you from here

[@Mattgaming-py9us]

An why don’t they do it in South Africa

[@talesofmodernlove]

Just curious how far down in the water the canister was? Hope the beautiful Fern is enjoying her well earned retirement

[@IspanUrkut]

I believe the dog located the canister, not the pork. For the test they should have made absolutely sure the dog had no idea the meat was in a canister. There's no way the smell of meat could get through a canister if it is air tight.

[@marieindia8116]

That is hilarious. How is a canister going to smell stronger than meat?

[@RottiesRuckus]

I do scent work as a sport with my dog (Rottweiler). My dog is trained to alert on Q-tips that're impregnated with a specific essential oil (birch, clove, anise or cypress). In competition the scented Q-tip is put into a small container or vessel of some sort that are typically made out of metal (such as a small metal tin) or plastic (a piece of soda straw or lip, centrifuge or nasal tube). Before the start of an event (and out of sight of competitors) a trial official places this combination (called a "hide") in what's called an Element you and your dog search in a given amount of time. Depending on the level of competition, the Element could be blank (no hide) or contain multiple hides. Given what I've seen, it makes no difference to my dog--or any other dog--what type of container is holding the Q-tip: dogs will alert when they source the odor. There is absolutely no doubt Fern alerted on the odor of the pork rising thru the silt and the water. Dogs live in an olfactory world that is beyond our comprehension; in addition to human scent and cadavers, they've been trained to detect arson accelerants, currency, drugs, explosives, digital devices, epilepsy, illegally-imported agricultural products, mold, fungi and viruses. I recently saw a webinar about a program training dogs to detect Spotted Lantern Fly eggs.

[@Idontknow-sb7wb]

Show this to people who say police K-9 units are useless

[@tylerm7300]

Imagine if we could utilize bears for sniffing.

[@Mattgaming-py9us]

People think dog are only good at police nooo the good ate everything

[@MaimingMusic]

So, if I toot near my dog, will the toot smell extra bad or will all the other scents surrounding her even it out?

[@ChaosBahamut]

Bat God Your dog will just smell the good parts of your fart. (well good from her perspective at least)

[@darksideofthemoon2348]

😊

[@ernestpaul6444]

V V V V Good Girle

[@oscar6082]

when I die I want to be born a dog

[@aysomori6848]

and get born in China....hahahaha

[@Paulie1232]

Hope not a pit bull...

[@ZaibatsuuHQ]

@@aysomori6848 Good one 😂

[@joshualopez9378]

Use this dog to find naya!😩

[@bobbycratchet3958]

And people use a Saran wrap and a suitcase to disguise their cocaine.

[@nasidshaikh8655]

Why cant we smell like how dog does it also can we smell like dogs miles away why is it impossible for us to do? Can Anyone answer me?

[@marieindia8116]

Dogs have 300 million scent nerves. We have 10 million.

[@briscocreek]

I apologize for my above comment pertaining to interference with another channel's inappropriate piano music. Another triumph oh the internet. Put my dog to sleep!!!

[@Nico-hf6hw]

Sounds like bullshit to me...xD

[@jadenrodriguez3534]

But can she find MH-370?

[@dougstyles]

Absolutely amazing

[@jeanetperico]

Cute doggie&Nice place :)