Can someone help explain to me...

...... how long ears help a dog scent. Sorry for being thick but I keep trying to think how they funnel the scent to the nose but just can't picture it!

I mean the animal with better ability to smell than the dog is the bear which has quite small ears compared to the size of it's head, I know bears can air scent etc and maybe the long ears would help more with ground scent / tracking......???

Can some one help me please Because right now I don't see how it helps.

A little picture migt help.

Thank you

I think long ears in a dog help with a sense of smell as in a Basset the ears drag along the ground while sniffing, they pick up smells as they are trapped in the ears and then the ears are close to the nose ?The 200 million or so scent receptors in the nose help too ! Just a thought ......

When the ears fall forward they form a kind of 'funnel' for the scent - encouraging the flow of scent to the nose rather than past it.

It depends on the dogs, Beagles can hold a scent for about 36 hours I believe and dogs such as Bloodhounds something like 12 days or something. I may be getting it mixed up *goes to google*
No can't find out how long they hold it for but I know with scent hounds it can be anything from hours to days, the longer the ears the longer the scent is held.

I suspect this is a myth. Otherwise GSDs would be no good at scent-work. (Which they are).

Yep

How though, that is what I wonder because because for expamle spaniels 99% of the time have their ears blow back by wind / movement of the dog or pushed back by cover so has no way or funnel to push scent toward the nose or if a hound has it's nose on the ground well thats it - it's nose IS where the scent IS and if there was wind the scent would may just be deflected by it's ears out to the sides but that does not funnel the scent to it's nose, surely? As the sent has already gone past it's nose before it gets to it's ears so the dog would have already scented it. This is what I don't get could some one do a picture so show how ears funnel the scent?

Old scent caught up on a dogs ears is of no use and could distract it IMO it needs to follow the scent where it has been left on the ground not sniff it's own ears ????

Help I still don't get it

Yeah I'm starting to think that too.

Ok the only scenting reason that I can see for long ears is......

When tracking with a strong backwind (that is coming dead strait towards the dogs back from directly behind the dog) the long ears might help to stop the scent just in front of the dogs head being blown away quite as quickly??? Though I am not sure that would work very well either tbh because the dog would still be able to smell what ever is under it's nose. Still confused if you can show me how it works please do.

I dont think it's anything more complicated than helping to trap and retain scents for longer around the nasal area.

Obviously, all dogs have an amazing abilty to scent, some breeds are favoured more for scent work because of their trainability so obviously breeds like GSD's etc have the standard excellent nose along with ease of training unlike the scent hounds which are far harder to train obedience wise.

Being interested in gundog work nddogs, you should know that scent and wind direction is a science in itself! It's not as simple as the scent is there under the dogs nose and it stays there. For a tracking dog there is the wind to consider along with the disturbed vegetation combined with odour particles from the game, weather conditions like damp/wet ground, age of scent, disturbance of the track etc. Scent close to the ground is affected by wind differently to scent in the air because the wind will swirl around the vegetation, rocks etc so it may not always be what it first appears to the dog.

I think the idea was that humans, in their infinite wisdom, thought long ears would help dogs bred specifically for scenting. No animal in the natural world has dropped ears, thats a fact, and of course wolves track their prey for miles and they have the standard erect ears.

I suppose... but the ears must help somehow, I know of course they help trap the scent, someway - I don't know - I'm confused (and ill )

Hope you find out why nddogs..