It's what happens when you amend the soil with composted manure.
Dogs have up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses. We have 6 million. When a dog stops to analyze a smell, his ability to decipher it is 40 times greater than ours. That’s not to say our sense of smell is weak. We actually have the ability to detect one trillion distinct scents. But compared to dogs, we just don’t use our noses as much.
Hold that thought while I tell you about my new compost. In the Blackland Prairie region of North Texas, we need clay-busting amendment to improve the soil in our gardens. We chose aged cow manure compost. Comprised of digested grass and grain, among other beneficial bacteria and organic materials, it creates a nutrient rich foundation for vigorous plant growth.
Now, back to dogs. Imagine Ziggy the sheepdog stumbling out onto a pile of compost in our new garden. For him, smelling it was probably like a best-selling whodunnit novel. Or perhaps it was like a summer blockbuster movie premier, full of explosive moments in his nose. Whatever he was going through, long periods of hyper-focused sniffing were spent in the garden. The intoxicating olfactory experience that conjured up past stories and characters made it hard to pull him away.
Ziggy, incidentally, is an arthritic 16-year-old who can’t see or hear much of anything. It’s nice to make an old dog happy, if not confused as he searches for a cow.
Comments