Dogs and extrasensory perception: Our four-legged friends have the same senses as humans: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste, even if they are developed differently than humans. The dog, however, also has the so-called "sixth sense" or extra sensory perception. Thanks to the latter, the dog "feels" what man cannot perceive.
As with humans, a dog's sense organs are physical structures in his body that allow him to interact with the surrounding world. Compared to humans, dogs have developed their senses differently, relying more on smell and hearing. Let's start with the view. This is one of the less developed senses of the dog, as over the centuries it has not developed enough, to the point that our four-legged friend can be considered short-sighted. In support of this thesis, it has been shown that the dog cannot visually distinguish its owner in a group of people at a certain distance. In low light conditions the dog sees much better than humans, even if it still fails to grasp the nuances of color.
At close range, however, the dog steals every single movement that would escape the human eye and is able to distinguish red, yellow, blue and green. The dog's field of vision is wider than that of man, because there is a different location of the eyes, which are less frontal and more lateral. Each breed, however, has a different ocular conformation: for example in hunting dogs the eyes are positioned to the side, in such a way as to have an even wider field of vision, while in the boxer they are in a central position, which allows them to seeing well in both eyes, even if the vision in small places is rather limited.
The other sense is hearing. Its mechanism is similar to that of humans, but it is a very developed sense, to the point that the dog is able to hear sounds of an intensity almost close to that of ultrasounds, about 40 thousand hertz, and can perceive up to 100 thousand vibrations, while the man can perceive only 30 thousand. For these reasons, trainers use a type of whistle in their training sessions that we barely hear the sound of, while dogs hear it very well. In addition, the mobility of the ears allows the dog to perfectly locate the direction from which the sound is coming, making hearing even more effective. It often happens that some dogs are able to perfectly distinguish the engine of the owner's car, or his footsteps, coming to express joy before he has rang the doorbell or arrived at the house.
The most developed sense of the dog, everyone knows, is the sense of smell. This sense is the hallmark that has distinguished the dog in the animal kingdom. In addition to being the most developed, it is the most important sense for the dog. Its olfactory cells exceed, depending on the breed, 100 million, and even reach 200 million in the German Shepherd, while in humans they reach just 5 thousand. It is so developed that the dog, even if it does not smell a particular object, but simply lets the air flow from the nostrils, is able to distinguish one object from another or a person from another very easily, even from a long distance. The nose or nose is kept moist by particular cells, to capture the smallest odoriferous particles, dissolved and made perceptible. If sight is the most important sense for humans, for dogs it is smell. A blind dog, in fact, is still able to orient himself on the street only thanks to his sense of smell. Some studies seem to have shown that a smell can remain imprinted in the dog's memory and that the latter would be able to recognize it in any place even after a long time. Observing a dog we will realize that he loves to smell things, people and animals. For this reason, many vets advise dog owners to take long walks, as it is an exercise to keep this sense trained.
As for the taste, it can be said that it is not a very developed sense even if it is closely connected to the sense of smell. In fact, when he smells, especially when it comes to food, he secretes excess saliva. It is hypothesized that the dog is unable to recognize the nuances of flavors, as they have fewer taste buds than humans.
The last of the five human-like senses is touch. In dogs it is found all over the body: the best example is when it takes pleasure in being caressed or scratched by its owner. The organs that most allow the dog to interact with the environment by tactile means are his whiskers, as they are very sensitive to temperatures. The dog uses them by bringing them close to the food bowl to see if it is too hot to be swallowed. The sense par excellence of the dog, in addition to the sense of smell, is the extrasensory perception or "sixth sense". The latter allows the dog to predict what is about to happen immediately, such as the arrival of the owner, when you want to do something that is often not pleasing to him (such as bathing) or predict both actions and feelings and the reactions of its owner.
The dog's sensory abilities, when science could not explain it, suggested that he possessed magical qualities. In reality, although incredible facts are documented, there is a scientific explanation. A dog knows how to find its way home even if it is very far from it, and moves on lands unknown to it with ease: this ability seems to be due to the sensitivity in perceiving even minimal variations in the magnetic field of the earth. This particular "electromagnetic" sense allows it to perceive the slightest vibrations of the earth's crust, to the point that it can predict earthquakes. It has also been proven that the dog is able to predict thunderstorms, shaking and barking before the arrival of rain: this form of sensitivity is instead connected to the change in atmospheric pressure and perhaps also to changes in the level of static electricity in the air. .
But science hasn't come to explain everything. There are cases in which some dogs have warned the presence of tumors in people, or that they have noticed that a person is subject to a particular handicap, assuming a defensive behavior towards these subjects. Until science can fully explain this extraordinary ability of the dog, we like to think that our four-legged friends are truly special and magical, like the unconditional love they reserve for their owners.