Right nostril biases to experimental scents in Canis familiaris

ABSTRACT

Although olfactory laterality in canids has been demonstrated experimentally, the extent to which nostril bias occurs in “nature” is not well known. We tested whether there was olfactory laterality of untrained dogs in various off-leash dog parks within Victoria, British Columbia to manipulated scents placed at the tail base of full-size dog replica. Using video-playback, we found that of 192 separate approaches (N = 119 different subjects), dogs used the right nostril first greater than 66% of the time and for longer periods when investigating estrous dog secretions, deer urine and coyote urine. Similar trends were observed when using scents on a similar-sized box rather than the dog model. There was no side preference for the scent of commercial pet food. These results support right hemisphere control of the sympathetic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and encourage more detailed evaluations of olfactory laterality in wild canids and other carnivores where olfaction is the major sensory modality.

KEYWORDS:

• Domestic dog
• olfaction
• laterality
• nostril bias
• model

Acknowledgements

We thank Debra Wertman for discussion and Ross McBee for additional video analyses. This work was supported by an Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada operating grant to TER (NRC 2354).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada operating grant to TER (NRC 2354).