My Grandson and so son started their life (after 2 decades with my
Alsatian) with the costlier SIBERIAN HUSKY white which moved closer to me
than them. It will run away to my room and hide beneath my computer chair
in between the feet. So from USA library I searched for the explanation
for human love to dogs. And from my notes below one may understand how we
are sso close friends with Dogs. K Rajaram IRS 29925
"Two Worlds, One Reality: Comparing Perception Between Dogs and
Humans"
Good [morning/afternoon/evening] everyone,
Have you ever walked a dog and noticed how they pause at every tree, sniff
the air, or react to sounds you didn’t even hear?
To us, it may seem like a distraction. But to them, it's perception at its
finest.
Today, I invite you to journey with me as we explore how dogs and
humans—though we share the same world—perceive it so differently that it
might as well be two different realities.
Body
1. Smell: A Different Kind of Sight
Let’s begin with the nose.
Humans have about 5 million olfactory receptors. Dogs? Up to 300 million.
According to the renowned canine researcher Alexandra Horowitz, dogs can
detect certain odors in parts per trillion—which means they can smell
things we can’t even imagine (Horowitz, 2009).
To a dog, every footstep, every raindrop, every person carries a story
written in scent.
While we rely on our eyes, dogs “see” the world through their noses.
2. Vision: Color vs Motion
Humans are trichromatic—we see red, green, and blue, which gives us access
to a wide range of colors.
Dogs are dichromatic; they mostly see blues and yellows, and struggle with
reds and greens (Neitz et al., 1989).
But before we feel too superior, consider this: dogs see far better than us
in low light and are more sensitive to motion.
So while we admire the color of a flower, a dog might detect the faint
rustling of a squirrel in the bushes.
3. Hearing: Beyond Human Limits
A dog’s ears are finely tuned instruments. They can hear sounds as high as
65,000 Hz, compared to our limit of around 20,000 Hz (Heffner, 1983).
That’s why your dog might react to a sound that’s completely inaudible to
you.
They can hear things earlier, farther, and at frequencies we don’t even
register.
4. Time: Living in the Moment
Humans have the ability to mentally travel through time—we remember, we
anticipate, we regret.
Dogs? They live in the now. They respond to routine, they recognize
patterns, but they don’t perceive time as a linear story.
This doesn’t mean they have no memory—it means their world is shaped by
immediacy, not reflection.
5. Emotions: Sensing What We Hide
If you’ve ever cried and your dog came to comfort you, you know dogs are
emotionally perceptive.
Studies have shown that dogs can read human facial expressions and respond
empathetically (Custance & Mayer, 2012).
While humans often hide or rationalize emotions, dogs respond directly,
intuitively, and without judgment.
So—can dogs and humans be compared in perception?
Yes—but in doing so, we discover that we live in radically different
perceptual worlds. The same street walk is a visual journey for us, and a
scented novel for them. Where we think in words, dogs think in smells,
sounds, movements, and energies.
Philosopher Thomas Nagel once asked, “What is it like to be a bat?” The
real question might be— “What is it like to be a dog?”
The honest answer? We can compare, we can measure, we can study—but we may
never truly know.
And that, my friends, is both the beauty and the humility of coexisting
with another species.
Thank you.
References
Custance, D., & Mayer, J. (2012). Empathic-like responding by domestic dogs
to distress in humans: An exploratory study. Animal Cognition
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