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DOG NOSES: ARE THEY REALLY UNIQUE?

Dec 28 2023 | By: Joan H. Walker l The PAWtographers庐

Behind the Scenes

The Canine Fingerprint

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Those bumps, grooves and tiny patterns aren't just wonderfully boopable. Your dog's nose may be as individual as they are.

Collage of close up dog noses in various colors and angles.

Are Dog Noses Really Unique?

We photograph a lot of dog noses.

Big ones. Tiny ones. Pink ones. Black ones. Freckled ones. And, of course, the occasional nose that comes directly toward the camera to investigate exactly what we're doing.

Look closely, though, and there's something far more interesting happening.

The surface of a dog's nose is covered with an intricate pattern of grooves, ridges and tiny structures. Research suggests that the combination of these features creates a nose pattern unique to the individual dog.

In other words, that nose you love to boop really is their own.

An Old Idea With New Technology

Using a dog's nose for identification isn't actually a new idea.

The Canadian Kennel Club began accepting canine nose prints as a form of identification in 1938. The process was decidedly low-tech: a dog's nose was inked and physically pressed onto paper.

The problem wasn't necessarily the individuality of the nose. Making a clean, readable print from a wet, wiggly dog was another matter entirely.

Today, digital photography and biometric technology are revisiting the same idea without the ink.

Smart Snout Version 2.0

How this dog nose scanner technology works.

A Canine Fingerprint?

In 2021, researchers put the idea to the test, studying hundreds of nose images from dogs representing different breeds, ages and sexes.

Their conclusion was remarkable: the nose patterns were unique to individual dogs and remained consistent when photographed at different times.

That makes the canine nose particularly interesting as a biometric marker. Instead of requiring an inked impression, researchers can now capture the pattern with something almost everyone carries: a smartphone camera.

The technology is still evolving, but the possibilities are intriguing, particularly when it comes to identifying lost dogs.

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That wonderfully boopable nose
really is one of a kind.

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The Details We Notice

Of course, we're not scanning noses when we're photographing dogs.

But we are paying attention to them.

The crooked whisker. The freckle on a muzzle. The ears that never quite match. The little scar, the ridiculous tongue, the expression their person recognizes instantly and, yes, that very distinctive nose.

Those tiny details are part of what makes a portrait unmistakably your dog.

And apparently, science agrees about the nose.

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