What are dogs actually smelling?

We as humans have about 6 million odor-sensitive cells,and dog have about 300 million. (wow!)

Dogs use their noses in all kinds of ways, whether to find food or new friends. Dogs can smell things that are invisible to the human nose. Dogs use their powerful sense of smell to detect everything from bombs to bed bugs.

* There is a lot going on in the ground that you might not even think about.

They are able to smell rain and other weather fronts coming

Of course, dogs can smell things such as smoke, blood and even tears, which is why it's not uncommon for our furry friends to be seen comforting someone in an emotional state.

The part of the brain that processes scents is larger in dogs than humans; it's also more developed in our four-legged fashionistas.

Section: In humans, two percent of our genes are used to code for olfactory receptor proteins; but in dogs, 15 percent of the genes are involved in odor reception.

Dogs don't need to breathe through their mouths when sniffing because they have an extra flap of skin (called a velum) in their nose that helps them trap scents.

A dog's nose has ridges on it (called "nasal lamellae") that help increase its surface area exponentially.