Q: Which animal has a better sense of smell, dog or cat? A: Dogs, "by a nose," and it's related to physiology. A cat has something like 50 million to 80 million odor-sensitive olfactory receptor cells in its nose, but a dog (depending on breed, with the bloodhound as champ) has a whopping 200 million to 300 million.
Dogs retain a superior sense of smell; cats can fall from great heights and walk away unscathed. But which animal has the better auditory system? The answer may surprise you. The feline sense of hearing is considerably more sensitive than dogs and humans (and many other mammals).
Cat vision precision is even worse than dogs. To give you a general idea for vision precision comparison, humans generally have 20/20 vision, which is a measurement called the Snellen fraction. Dogs are estimated to have 20/75 vision and cats are estimated to have 20/150 vision.
Bloodhounds. They have a top-notch nose with 300 million scent receptors. As champion sniffers, they can track scents on the ground and in the air. Learn more about Bloodhounds here.
Dog Breeds with the Best Sense of Smell
Elephant According to research, this animal possesses the best sense of smell, and it is possibly the strongest ever discovered in a single species. Elephants have almost 2,000 unique genes that enable them to identify scents in their environment.
Honey bees have 170 odorant receptors in their antenna, and have a sense of smell 50 times betterthan a dog. Bees are able to detect scents with their mouths, antennae and tips of their legs (tarsi).
People with ailurophobia (eye-lure-o-PHO-bia) have a fear of cats. Someone with ailurophobia may have extreme anxiety or fear when seeing or thinking about cats. They may avoid visiting friends who have cats or stay away from co-workers who talk about their cats.
The dogs with a history of being aggressive with cats paid the most attention to the cat sounds. It appears that dogs can smell cats but what will most get their interest will be the "Meow" and other sounds of the cat.
Cats Love Self-Grooming The main reason that cats smell better than dogs is that cats are notoriously clean creatures and wash away any smells and dirt each day by grooming themselves religiously. Cats are designed to successfully self-groom.
Scents that seem overwhelming to us are overpowering for dogs causing their body to have a greater negative reaction to these harsh smells. Bleach is one such scent that can overpower a dog's sense of smell, causing them to lose it completely. This leaves them unable to process other scents around them.
Bloodhounds. These massive hounds have over 300 million scent receptors, which is more than any other dog breed. Bloodhounds have such a reliable sense of smell that their findings can actually be used in a court of law.
Their sense of smell is 14 times better than that of humans. Because their sense of smell is so sensitive, it's important to be aware of things like scented litter, other animal's smells on you or an unfamiliar scent in your cat's environment (such as a new piece of furniture or a house guest).