Dogs have incredible senses like humans, but dogs’ senses are quite more dominant. Guess that explains why we are alike but not quite! Dogs’ senses are definitely sharper than what normal humans have. They can hear even the smallest sound and smell even the most unnoticeable trail.

Think about K-9 dogs who can follow the human trail and even smell bombs, drugs, etc. And humans have definitely benefited from the dogs’ powerful senses.

Here are dogs’ five senses:

Sense of touch
Dogs’ sense of touch is similar to human’s sense of touch in many ways. Of the five senses that dogs and humans hold, the sense of touch is the most comparable.

Touch is the sense that is used immediately at birth by the tiny puppy to get warmth and nourishment. Newborns naturally nuzzle towards their mama, pawing to stimulate the milk flow. Likewise, the mama dog licks and nuzzles them to eliminate waste.

Sense of sight
Dogs have a broader angle of view than humans do, but their field of vision  from every eye does not overlap as much as of humans, so less of what dogs see is in focus. This indicates that dogs can see farther around them but do not always instantly distinguish what they see.

It was thought before that dogs are colorblind but dogs can see yellow and blue shades perfectly. It’s the reds and oranges that are more challenging for them to observe.

Dogs have better night vision than humans, and they are skillful at picking up on movements even in the dark.

Sense of smell
This is probably their most powerful sense, their sense of smell.

Dogs’ sense of smell overpowers humans by degrees of magnitude—it’s 10,000 to 100,000 times more powerful.

Dogs have developed to have a powerful sense of smell, with nearly 900 genes that code for smell receptors, compared to humans, who only have fewer than 400. Dogs also have around 125–300 million olfactory receptors, versus humans, who have about six million.

Sense of taste
If you check in your dog’s mouth, you will see lots of small bumps called ‘papillae’, each of which includes groups of taste buds. Each taste bud comprises about 50 taste-receptor cells.

Dogs have fewer taste buds than humans do. They have about 1,700 on average compared to 9,000 for humans.

Sense of hearing
Dogs have a strong sense of hearing. They can hear sounds four times farther away than the human ear can perceive. Their ears are also thoroughly designed to assemble more possible sound waves.

Their ears have 15 different muscles that allow them to move in all directions. Plus, they can move one ear at a time, separately from the other, to grasp and listen more attentively.

Hearing is considered a dog’s second-best sense, after the sense of smell.

Just like us, humans, dogs’ five senses perform a very significant role in helping dogs understand and experience their surroundings. But the way dogs use their senses is oftentimes very different, even complex, and powerful than how humans do.