How Can Dogs Get Home?

There are many stories that we know of dogs that got lost but returned home after a few days. It may seem surprising, but dogs manage to return home and we even think that for them this is something very normal, as we know more and more cases.

In order to find out the answer to this question, which surprises many, the University of Vancouver did some studies and got an answer. Would you like to meet her?

How can dogs get home

According to studies carried out by the University of Vancouver, dogs are able to return home because they can track their owners. They do this in two ways: one is through the sense of smell, something we already knew, but the other, it will surprise you!

For a dog, its owner is the leader of its pack, so they are able to smell it from meters away. We must remember that a dog does not know where it is or where it should go, because its sense of orientation is totally null. Therefore, the first sense by which dogs are guided is smell.

Dogs’ sense of smell is exceptional, as they are able to recognize the scent they are looking for in an environment full of different scents and have the ability to follow it until they find it.

the smell of dogs

To understand a little bit how thanks to smell a dog can come home, we must understand how it works.

Dogs’ noses have two independent and separate channels: one for breathing and the other for sniffing. Thanks to these, no matter how many scents there may be where they are, they have the ability to isolate all the scents they don’t need and find what they’re looking for.

A human being has an average of five million olfactory receptors, while dogs have hundreds of millions. The part of the dog’s brain that captures these aromas is much more developed in these animals than in people, being able to capture and memorize them, thus being able to find this aroma anywhere.

Added to this, with their sense of smell they can recognize not only people or other animals they already know, but they are also able to know how they feel or what emotions it provokes in them. So say a dog that “smells” your fear.

While this may amaze you, there is one more reason why dogs are able to come home and we are certain it will thrill you.

The other reason…

The other reason dogs are able to return home is the loyalty they feel for their owner. Their owner, their home and their territory are the dogs’ life, and moved by this they are able to return even if there is no characteristic scent that guides them.

For them, it ‘s more than coming home, it’s getting back together with the one they love the most in the world and for whom they would be able to give their life.

Who doesn’t remember Hachiko? This loyal dog returned day after day for 7 years to the place where he found his owner daily. One day its owner did not return, as he died of a heart attack. Hachiko could have been sad for a few hours at home and gone on with his life, happy with another family who would have taken him in and taken good care of him.

However, his loyalty went further. He didn’t mind the cold or the heat, or the time he spent there. He didn’t understand why his owner didn’t return, but Hachiko died in that train station waiting for his owner for years, the being he loved most in the world.