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Best in nose: Border collies outperform hunting breeds in olfactory task study

A new comprehensive study by Hungarian ethologists provides valuable insights into the factors that affect the olfactory performance of dogs. Border collies, a herding breed, reached higher success levels than some hunting breeds, like golden retrievers, Hungarian and German vizslas, basset and bloodhounds. The study was published in .

A research team from the Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, undertook the challenge of examining the olfactory performance of more than five hundred family dogs of various breeds. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of dogs' scent detection capabilities and determine whether breed group, breed, training level, and dog personality influence their performance in an olfactory task.

To assess olfactory performance, they used the Natural Detection Task, a simple search task developed by the team and already successfully applied even in the case of wolves. The dogs had to find a hidden dog treat in a line of pots.

No training was necessary, as the test leveraged the dogs' natural motivation for food. The task featured three difficulty levels; the first level acted as a pre-test to ensure the dogs understood the task, were motivated, and did not rely on alternative problem-solving methods. Dogs successfully completing the third level were considered to be the best.

During the test, an experimenter—unaware of the location of the hidden food—was observing whether the dog spontaneously indicated a pot (e.g., licking the pot, placing the paw on the pot, poking or pushing the pot with the nose).

"The findings revealed that different breeds exhibited varying levels of olfactory success. However, the broader functional categories of breed groups, selected for olfaction, cooperation or both, were proven non-relevant, suggesting that breed-specific traits are more influential than breed group characteristics," said Attila Salamon from the ELTE NAP Canine Brain Research Group, first author of the paper.

Interestingly, border collies—selected for herding—reached higher success levels than golden retrievers, Hungarian/German vizslas and basset/bloodhounds, breeds traditionally chosen for hunting or olfaction. Beagles found the hidden food quicker than border collies, basset/bloodhounds, golden retrievers, Labradors and cocker spaniels.

Irrespective of breed, dogs with higher responsiveness-to-training personality scores were more successful. Surprisingly, dogs with more advanced training were not more successful and completed the successful searches at a slower pace.

"We revealed that, in addition to a dog's olfactory ability, what genetic and environmental factors, and their possible interactions, affect dogs' success in even such a simple task. This study may help to better understand the role of these factors and confirms that the Natural Detection Task is a useful tool for selecting young or inexperienced dogs for search work," concluded Márta Gácsi, lead researcher.