ABSTRACT
The olfactory abilities of dogs are famous, but the canine nose is a physiological compromise between at least six conflicting functions-respiration, vocalization, water balance, temperature regulation, recycling tears, and detecting odorant molecules. In addition, the canine nose was not designed specifically to carry out these functions but is instead the end result of hundreds of millions of years of natural selection and evolutionary chance. In this chapter, I will describe the gross structure of the canine nose but will emphasize its evolutionary and developmental origins, and also how its internal and external arrangement allows it to perform its various functions.
