Olfactory communication in Dogs

FoxyVixen

I'm in the middle of doing a correspondance course on canine health and welfare. I'm a little stumped at a question and finding it difficult to source proper research relating to the thread title.

Hope mods don't mind me asking questions in relation to this. I don't think it breaks any charter rules.

Basically the question asks to list three differant methods that olfactory communication is passed between dogs, and the type of information passed through these means.

I'm led to believe it refers to the anal glands, urine and saliva/vomeronasal organ as the methods of communication.

But where do you conclude the type of information given through these means? Any articles I've looked into and the majority of books I've read give it a vague answer as to it being the emotional/physical state of the dog in all contexts.

My brains a mush at the moment, the word olfaction doesn't even look right to me anymore :rolleyes:

Basically, if anyone can point me in the direction on where I can look into the specific type of information passed through the dogs excretions. Or am I missing something?

DBB

Alexandra Horowitz has a super book called "Inside of a Dog", which will be of help to you throughout any dog course, and John Bradshaw's "In Defence of Dogs: Why Dogs Need Our Understanding", both do lovely descriptions of what each of the senses do, in a nice, not-too-heavy form.
But if you want to get more meaty, several books that have huge amounts of information for anyone studying dogs and dog behaviour (including olfaction!) is Adam Miklosi's "Dog Behaviour, Evolution and Cognition", Stephen Lindsay's "Handbook of Applied Dog Behaviour and Traiing, Vol 1" (2001), and Bonnie Beaver's "Canine Behaviour: Insights and Answers". None of these are light bedtime reading, but will give you a lot of detail if you need it for your studies.
Be careful to divide your caption up into how scents are produced/given off, vs how scents are detected: urine, body scent, glands, saliva etc are all body fluids/secretions/vapours that are given off by dogs (and humans) that are assessed by another dog whilst he's sniffing. These scents are detected by the vomeronasal organ (VNO), and the olfactory epithelium (nose lining).
Good luck with the studies:)

FoxyVixen

Cheers DBB, appreciate the reply.

Have Bradshaw's book but not gone through it all yet. Also have Miklosi's and skimmed through it earlier today. Matter of dissecting through it a little, alot of post-its sticking out of it right now.

Lindsay's books are being brought by Santa

I'm on the right path so and have the right material, just wasn't 100% certain. Now a matter of dedicating time to go through it properly.