Can Dogs Smell Their Way Home?

The dog's sense of smell is legendary. Dogs have about 20 million olfactory cells designed to detect scent, approximately four times the number of cells humans have. Specially-trained dogs can detect illegal drugs, cancer and numerous other substances, so many people wonder if lost dogs can smell their way back home. While dogs may be able to use scent clues to find their way back home -- and some dogs have wandered back home after being lost for many years -- most lost dogs are too far away from their homes to find their way back.

  1. The Dog's Nose

    • A dog's strongest sense is its nose. Dogs not only have more olfactory cells than people; they are also able to move their nose in the direction of interesting scents. They have a much larger surface area designed for smelling, which allows them to take in more specific information about a particular scent.

    Relying on Scent

    • Dogs have poorer eyesight than people and can't talk, which means they must rely on other senses to gain information about their environment. While humans tend to ignore smells and focus on visual stimuli, dogs quickly learn that they can obtain the most information about something via smell. Thus at least part of a dog's ability to detect certain odors is due to the fact that dogs simply focus on and learn smells more frequently than people do. Dogs may also encode smell memories in their brains: So while humans typically associate an event with what was said or what things look like, dogs are more apt to remember the feelings and events associated with a particular smell.

    Smelling Home

    • Dogs can usually smell things up to 450 yards away, so dogs who are lost near their homes may smell familiar scents from a long distance. A dog whose owner has been out looking for it may also be able to leave a trace scent of the owner that will lead the dog back to its home. Dogs who have recently moved to a new home are more likely to get lost -- or to attempt to return to their previous home.

    Smelling Clues

    • Though dogs have an excellent sense of smell, their noses aren't magic. Beyond a certain distance from home, they will be just as confused as a lost human. However, some dogs may be able to pick up on environmental clues that lead them home. They can smell other dogs' urine, smell paths they have walked before and use familiar locations to get closer to home. Dogs who find their way home after many years have likely used familiar scents in the environment, rather than the smell of the home itself to find their way home.