RE: Identity by smell (was Re:silly walks department)

From: Sean Kenny (sean@windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk)
Date: Fri Jun 09 2000 - 03:07:30 MDT


[Non-member submission]

> It is easier to detect smell differences than "absolute smells", so a
> good first step in training oneself to act as a tracking dog is to
> cross smell tracks. If you walk along a street, slowly inhaling
> through your nose you can detect the changes in the air when you cross
> the track of somebody else. It is a quite interesting pastime to try
> to "see" the world like a dog presumably does.

Richard Feynmann had an anecdote on this very subject, but he said it was
better if you moved around on all fours closer to the ground for the full
dog experience. He also did an experiment where he got some friends to
handle some books, and after smelling his friends hands and smelling the
books he could match each person to the book they had handled.



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