The Sniffer
Why do dogs sniff?? If they meet a human they sniff, if they
meet a fellow dog they sniff, if they have to poop they sniff, if they need to
pee they sniff, if they have to eat they sniff, if they walk they sniff. This
question has intrigued me a lot. Afraid of the admonition this question may
generate I have not dared to ask anybody about this funny curiosity of mine.
Imagine yourselves asking this question to an acquaintance. Do you think their
response would be any different than “Coz, they are dogs.. genius” or “Dogs are
supposed to do that dude” or even “DUH, Einstein!!” You may laugh at me but I
have finally taken the courage to ask this question to myself. I sincerely hope
that I am able to satisfy myself by answering this question. Somebody said “The
cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” Boredom or curiosity, I have no interest in
channeling my energies into finding that out but at the end of it, the question,
for me, still remains – “Why do dogs sniff as if their life depended on it.”
If you are a dog parent and that too a new one then I am
sure you would sympathize with me and understand how difficult it is to walk a
dog whose whole mission in life seems to be sniffing every leaf on the bush or
every rock that he/she passes by. This being primary but apart from it the
secondary and tertiary reason to go so deep in this matter, that many may
consider trivial, because I believe that this endeavor of mine will help me
bring closer to my adopted non-human child Bud. Some of you may question if
this subject is really worthy of exploring or is it just a waste of time and a
vomit of my brain for the sake of writing something. Let’s see.
Edward de Bono – does the name sound familiar. If it did not
ring a bell then I would request you to look him up. If nothing else, his ideas
will help add another spectrum to your thought process. So, yes, he motivated
me, though not personally but through one his many intelligent writings about
the subject of “Lateral Thinking”. There are many a words and volumes written
on this subject but I find Edward de Bono’s to be most clear. You are free to
disagree with me and no offense will be taken. Never mind, progressing on the
topic, I have come to understand, courtesy Edward de Bono, that there are
“Critical Thinking” and “Lateral Thinking” approaches that can be employed to
reach to a conclusion or a solution of a given problem.
From whatever little that I have read about the subject I can safely say that
“Critical Thinking” empowers a person to discover if a statement is fully true
or partially true or fully false by placing the observations and facts in right
order. On the other hand, “Lateral Thinking” takes the help of creativity plus
reasoning and lets you create a new idea from an already existing known fact or
idea. Critical or Lateral, both are just different approaches to reach to the end
goal of problem solving. Latter is employed less as it deals a little bit with
diving in the abstract world and requires a lot of practice to master. I also
call it “Brain Cultivating”. I wonder whether Hercule Poirot refers to THIS
alternate thinking approach when he says, “Mon Ami, let the little grey cells
do their work”. Since I am an avid
follower and believer of this subject so I have some faith that this creative
and off-the-beaten-track approach would help quench my thirst at least for the
time being. Now, I hope, I have established a connection between the two
subjects that we are talking about (Dog sniff and Lateral thinking). So, if we
are no longer feeling lost or disinterested let’s proceed. Although, I am
warning the weak of heart that henceforth whatever is going to come is a vomit
of my brain and is bound to disgust some part of the diaspora. So, please
proceed at your own risk.
Let us consider humans as an example of class animal on
planet earth. We all know what incredible feats humans are capable of in
today’s world? There remains very little that man has not tried. We have sized
the universe. I believe that if Shashank S can start blogging out of the blue
then there is nothing in the world that other humans cannot achieve. The point
of the analogy is that a task may seem impossible at a time but if effort is
applied with little love and labor then success will be surely achieved.
Persistence is another factor but for now let’s assume the former to be main
ingredient that helps us start walking towards our goal. Let’s try and circle
back to our main topic. Before we jump to the original question let’s get
deviated again a little in trying to understand humans from nature’s
perspective. What is the biggest advantage that humans have over other fellow
inhabitants and makes us say that we are superior to other species on planet
Earth? In other words what has man received from Nature in order to survive on
Earth? Unlimited Brain power, five senses, ability to use our digits,
communication via spoken language, display emotions, communication via body
language, skill to organize and stay together (and not limited to)are just some
of the many abilities that we have acquired over thousands of years of
evolution and are still evolving. We say the next generation is always smarter and
better than the last. Nature has built humans as they need to be so that they
can continuously learn, evolve and survive. They are a perfectly designed unit
capable of sustaining their life.
In the same light,
let’s compare what dogs have received as rewards from our mother nature. They
are four legged, have enhanced listening powers, have enhanced smelling power, enhanced running
power, have good eyes, very efficient anatomy to survive in the wild and other
plethora of abilities that helps them survive on planet Earth. From the above
we can safely say that dogs are also built as a perfect unit that makes them well
capable of sustaining their life. Someone may pitch in and say “Well, this is
all good but are we talking about wild dogs or domesticated ones because they
differ at so many different levels?” Good question and a factor worthy of
taking into consideration and to keep things at parity let us focus on anatomy
only. I am sure, considering anatomically, we all can agree with my statements
above as they would apply to both types. And, we should not forget dogs are
descendants of wolves and share many similar traits.
Initially, Nature had put dogs almost at the top of the food
chain until man used his brain power to climb to the top and displaced the
harmony created by nature. Maybe this is a part of the big picture that Nature
sees or a side effect of big chemical/biological process. It’s hard to imagine
Nature making a mistake. Yeah? Anyway, my
thoughts are that dog and human are built perfect and exactly to their needs by
mother Nature. If observed carefully, the attributes of a dog and human can be
actually compared as apples to apples since Nature has given almost the same
things to both but in varying degrees of proportions. Again, compare them
anatomically and you will understand what I am talking about. We both have ears
but they listen more. We both have eyes but we see better in daylight and they
in dark. We both have nose but they parse a smell better. We both have legs but they run faster. We both
have brains but humans are much better in its application. We both have spine
but we walk straight. And so on… But all the above prove nothing except that
Nature has provided us with precisely what we need. And the answer to the topic
of this blog actually lies in the last statement that I just made. Dogs have
exactly what they need. They have a weak vision during daylight so that they
can see better in dark. Their eyes do not register the same colors and depth as
a human eye does. They see a paler shade of everything but deficiency helps
them to see better in dark. Hmm.. sounds like another classic example of
natural trade-off to better the efficiency of the body. Nevertheless, this
deficiency of sight is more than compensated by heightened sense of smell and
hearing. These three qualities in conjunction helps a dog to register the exact
nature of the object and hence classify it as dangerous or friendly. In short
if you consider the perils of living on earth with limited resources then using
their eyes, long range ears and smelling skills in combination is the best
strategy to stay alive. The more they know and understand the more they would
be safer and hence live longer. So, what may be an annoyance to some is a survival
strategy for the other.
Another interesting idea, try investigating why a human
child (infants) always takes things in its mouth. You would be surprised to
know that it is for the same reason that dogs sniff. To compensate for the lack
of perfectly developed vision they employ sense of touch to understand about
the object. Although, often times they end up hurting themselves in this
process but this is how they learn and make choices in future if presented with
same objects again. Human child takes very long to mature and needs protection
and help at all stages to survive. Humans have mastered this art by building
infrastructures and facilities to save a child from perishing to the elements
before its maturity. I am veering towards another blog topic but I guess you
would have got my point by now that infants like any other species try to
employ whatever best option they have (in this case touch) to perceive and
understand about objects.
We have talked and compared two species here. No numbers were
involved, no statistics were consulted but we had some scattered ideas, some
reasoning and some creativity which helped us to build new ones. This looks
like we have successfully used a pattern of lateral thinking approach. And also
we have a conclusion too. So, at this juncture, I am pretty satisfied with the
justification. So the bottom line is it is all part of survival strategy and that
each species is made the way it is.
So what should you do when your dog sniffs like crazy? I
guess, since he/she is domesticated he/she has lost its right of survival. What
do you think?
BY
Shashank S
