Cold Nose, Warm Sense
BY CHRIS ZINK DVM PHD DACVP DACVSMR CCRT CVSMT CVA
D id you know that your dog has something in common with vampire bats, pit vipers, and black fire beetles? What could that possibly be? It all started when some scientists from Sweden and Hungary went into a bar… Well, that might not be exactly true. I’m not sure where they were when they got together and asked the question: “Why is a dog’s nose moist and cold, when most other mammals’ noses are warm and dry?” No doubt this is a question that has also kept you awake many a night… At first, they considered that the cold, wet canine nose might help with cooling in hot weather. But they discarded that idea because the surface area of the nose is just too small to make much of a difference. They knew that under the skin of the dog’s rhinarium, the area of the nose surrounding the nostrils, there is a dense network of nerve fibers that connect to the trigeminal nerve, the largest nerve in the head. They wondered what information all those nerves under the skin of the nose might be sending to the brain.
“At first, they considered that the cold, wet canine nose might help with cooling in hot weather. But they discarded that idea because the surface of the nose is just too small to make much of a difference.”
82 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, MARCH 2024
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