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For me, the short answer is ‘No’. But I know there have been countless times when I have looked at my dogs and thought ‘How did you know I was going to do…….?’, ‘How did you know that was about to happen?’, ‘How did you know I needed comfort?’ The list goes on and on. So, why do I say ‘No’? Let me explain.
Before getting started it is important to note that I plan to generalise on the dogs’ senses.
However, there are breed differences. For example, the greyhound is a ‘sight’ hound. This means their visual detection of movement is superior to that of a ‘scent’ hound, such as a
Bloodhound. In the same way the Bloodhound’s detection of ground scent is superior to that of the greyhound. Nonetheless, all dogs, regardless of breed have similar enough senses to talk about them as a whole.
Smell
Let’s think first about the dog’s sense of smell. Smell is probably as important to dogs as our sense of sight is to us. Dogs ‘see’ with their nose. To put it in perspective: dogs have approximately 220 million scent receptors in their noses. Compare this to our approximate 5 million and the importance of olfaction to our dogs becomes apparent. Dogs have the ability to grab and track air and/or ground scents. Dogs can detect drugs, bombs, missing persons, and cancer to name but a few. This is beyond my capability, beyond my understanding but completely intuitive to our dogs.
Taste
The sense of taste, very broadly, is less important. Nonetheless, it must be taken in conjunction with scent for a fuller understanding. Just as chefs all over the world tell us we eat with our eyes first, so dogs eat with their noses first. We look at our food and feel hungry

(providing of course that it looks appetising). Dogs smell it first and feel hungry (again providing it smells appetising – take note though that sometimes what is appetising to a dog is in no shape or form appetising to us!). Dogs’ taste buds are able to distinguish between key flavours (salty, sweet, bitter, sour) and are particularly attuned to water, but in a nutshell they prefer meat to other foods, preferably warm meat.
Touch
This is my favourite sense in our dogs, simply because it is reciprocally rewarding. There are touch receptors all over the dog’s body. However, instead of looking at the number of touch receptors our dogs have, I’m interested in the effect touch can have on our dogs and in the concentration of vibrissae (sensory hairs) on our dogs’ muzzles. Petting a dog can lower its heart rate and cortisol level. In effect human/canine tactile interaction is relaxing. Touch is physiologically rewarding. The sensory hairs on our dogs’ muzzles tell them about distance, structure and shape of environmental stimuli as well as providing information about climatic conditions.
Sight
Do dogs see colour? An age old question and one that I think misses the point – it really doesn’t matter. How they see is the question that I find more interesting. They see best in twilight, which makes sense given that dawn and dusk, are key canine hunting times. They are very sensitive to movement. Again this makes sense; canine hunting generally involves spotting and chasing moving targets. The positioning of the majority of breeds’ eyes (at the sides of the head as opposed to the front) allows for broad lateral vision (seeing to the sides of their environment), although binocular vision (seeing right in front of them) is less acute. So, to answer the question – do dogs see colour? Research does suggest that dogs have rudimentary colour vision. Essentially they see hues. But so what? They just don’t need to see in colour.
Hearing
I have heard it said and at times seen it quoted that the dog’s hearing is X times better than ours with X ranging from 4 to 100. The validity of these claims is circumspect. However there are 2 areas where dogs’ hearing differs to ours. Firstly dogs are able to move their ears in the direction of a noise they hear without the need to turn their head. Secondly, dogs (and cats for that matter) are much better at hearing high pitched noises, such as the kind of noise

bats make, than we are. Evolutionarily speaking high pitches represent a call to action for the canine. Field mice, rats, rabbits, squirrels (depending on where you live) all emit high pitched calls and all form part of the wild canine diet. Pups and/or cubs emit high pitched yelps when in trouble and these yelps represent a signal to the parent to attend.
Now armed with more facts about our dogs’ senses, we return to the question: Do dogs have a 6 th sense? It seems to me that almost anything we perceive as a sixth sense can, in fact, be explained by delving into the dog’s five senses.
So, to return to the three previously posed questions:
‘How did my dog know I was going to….?’
We tend to make small barely noticeable intention movements when we are about to, for example, get up off our chair to make a cup of coffee. Our dog doesn’t have to be watching us directly to pick up these intention movements. Remember, our dogs’ enhanced sensitivity to movement? Top this with his wide peripheral vision and there we go, our dog knows, it seems, we are about to get up before we do.
How did my dog know that (e.g. a thunderstorm) was about to happen?
Your dog is looking uncomfortable, sitting under the table occasionally approaching for a reassuring pat. Lightning flashes, thunder roars and you think ‘that’s what’s going on with
Spot – he knew’. Well he probably did but it had nothing to do with a sixth sense. Remember those vibrissae, the extremely sensitive hairs on Spot’s muzzle? They are sensitive to air currents. Air currents shift and change, sometimes dramatically, prior to thunderstorms and indeed other severe weather conditions. So yes, Spot knew but Spot knew thanks to his sense of touch which in the past has reliability predicted that such changes in air current usually precede a storm.
How did my dog know I needed comfort?
Back to those intention movements. I think we’ve established our dogs notice them and based on previous experience our dogs know that a certain set of intention movements mean we are about to snuggle up with them and provide that physiologically calming touch (relaxing for us and for our dog). Our dog simply makes sure he is in the right place, at the right time, to share the moment.

Make no mistake the absence of a sixth sense in no way detracts from the unique bond between owner and dog. If anything, knowledge of our dogs’ five senses only adds to the pleasure of sharing time with animals that can do things we can only imagine.
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