--- title: How a dog thinks: a world of smells, sounds and faces — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «How a dog thinks: a world of smells, sounds and faces», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: On a walk your dog stops at a lamp post and sniffs for ages while you tug the lead. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / How a dog thinks: a world of smells, s… # How a dog thinks: a world of smells, sounds and faces Lesson 193 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 19 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/0/) — On a walk your dog stops at a lamp post and sniffs for ages while you tug the lead. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/1/) — For the dog this is reading the news: who passed by, how long ago, and whether it was a male or a female. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/2/) — A dog lives first in a world of smells, then of sounds; its eyes matter less. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/3/) — It sniffs in short quick bursts that carry smells to a special part of its nose, and it can even tell which nostril a smell came into. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/4/) — Its ears catch sounds too high or too quiet for us, which is why it runs to the door when the family car is still far down the road. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/5/) — Dogs have also spent thousands of years living with people, and they became experts at our faces, voices and pointing fingers, better at this one thing than chimpanzees. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/6/) — Some dog behaviour looks human but is not: the famous guilty look after the bin is knocked over is mostly a reaction to your cross voice. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/7/) — Other dogs leave scent marks with urine (wee) on lamp posts that tell who passed, how long ago, and whether they were male or female. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/8/) — A dog's nose has hundreds of millions of smell sensors and smells many thousands of times better than ours, so it can find a biscuit inside a closed bag in a backpack. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/9/) — Dogs sniff in short bursts that carry smells to a special part of the nose, and they can tell which nostril a smell entered, which helps them find where it comes from. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/10/) — A warm dry nose does not always mean a dog is ill; that is an old myth. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/11/) — Dogs learn the sound of each car engine, and they hear a dog whistle that is too high for people to hear. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/12/) — Dogs see blue and yellow well, but red and green look greyish to them, so a blue or yellow ball is easier to find on a lawn. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/13/) — Dogs learn daily routines and may notice how a person's smell fades in the house during the day, which may help them seem to know when someone is coming home. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/14/) — Dogs get stressed when a routine suddenly changes, for example when the holidays end. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/16/) — Some border collies have learned the names of over a thousand toys, but most dogs understand tone of voice more than exact words. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/17/) — Scientists found that dogs make the same guilty look whether or not they did anything, if the owner is cross; the look is a way to calm an upset person. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/18/) — Dogs have the same sleep stages as us, including the dreaming stage, and puppies and old dogs dream more often than adult dogs. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/19/) — Many dogs nibble grass and it is usually normal; scientists are not fully sure why, and wolves eat some plants too. - ← previous: [Dogs: from wolves to hundreds of breeds](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/192-dogs-from-wolves-to-hundreds-of-breeds/) - next →: [Reading a dog: tails, play bows, growls and staying safe](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/194-reading-a-dog-tails-play-bows-growls-and-staying-safe/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)