11 superpowers all dogs have that prove they’re cooler than humans

Don’t even try to hide treats from your dog. His nose knows you have them. Just don’t let him get his paws on any foods dogs can’t eat. Dogs’ sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive than that of humans. Just how powerful is that? As James Walker, former director of the Sensory Research Institute at Florida State University, told PBS, “If you make the analogy to vision, what you and I can see at a third of a mile, a dog could see more than 3,000 miles away and still see as well.”

Here are 10 things dogs can smell that humans can’t.

There are some weather myths you shouldn’t believe, like lightning never strikes the same place twice. But here’s one you should never doubt: Dogs can sense when bad weather is coming. Researchers don’t have an exact explanation – maybe your pet actually is a superhero! – but they have some theories. Dogs are sensitive to drops in barometric pressure that come with severe storms, and they can hear low frequencies that humans can’t, like far-off thunder and earthquake rumbles. You shouldn’t solely rely on your pet over meteorologists, but don’t let their weird behaviour go unnoticed. It could save your life.

Here are more amazing things your dog knows about you.

As if having an extra extremity wasn’t cool to begin with, dogs can also use their tails to communicate. They lower their tails when they feel scared or nervous. When they’re alert or aroused, the tails wag higher. If a pooch is aggressive or feeling threatened, that tail will stick straight up in the air. Plus, dogs can tell how other canines are feeling based on what direction they wag in. Italian researchers discovered that dogs became more anxious when they saw others wag their tails to the left, as opposed to the right side or not at all. Previous studies showed that left-leaning tail wagging was a result of a dog having a negative experience, like facing a nasty dog.

Here are more things your dog’s tail is trying to tell you.

Dogs and humans know how to take care of each other. Dogs can tell when you’re not 100 percent healthy, sometimes even before you know it. Thanks to their powerful sense of smell, dogs can pick up on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human bodies, which include diseases like cancer. In 2006, dogs trained at the In Situ Foundation were able to detect lung cancer with 97 percent accuracy and breast cancer with 88 percent accuracy, just by sniffing breath samples from patients. Those are better results than needle biopsies.

You should also look out for the signs that your dog is sick.

Well, kind of. Dogs can’t exactly read your mind, but they do know how you’re feeling. In a study published in Biology Letters, researchers showed dogs photos of faces displaying different emotions while also playing an audio clip that showed a distinct emotion. What’s interesting is that the dogs looked at the face that corresponded to the type of voice that was being played, like a mad face when the audio clip was an angry voice. So your pet may not be able to process the words “You ate all of my cereal?!” like humans can, but she can definitely use your facial expressions and tone to pick up that you’re not in a great mood.

Check out this ranking of the smartest dogs.

Yes, empathy is a superpower. Not only do dogs and pups understand your feelings, but they can also empathise with you, according to a report from Psychology Today. Psychologists from Goldsmiths College in London conducted the same study on 18 dogs: Each dog would watch while their owner sat across from a stranger. The two individuals would take turns talking normally, humming in an unusual pattern, and pretending to cry. The psychologists reasoned that when their owners cried, the pets would lay on them, nuzzle, lick, or otherwise try to comfort them. But the dogs ended up also comforting the crying strangers, even though they had no emotional connection, just because they saw that they were distressed. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all empathised like dogs?

You’ve probably heard stories about pets that found their way home despite terrible odds and long distances. But once again, dogs’ noses are a crucial part of their uncanny sense of direction. They are able to follow their own scent trails for kilometres to retrace their steps, and if the wind is right, they can even use their owners’ scent as well, TIME reported. Scientist even say that dogs are more intelligent than cats.

While we meagre humans can only hear sounds up to 20,000 Hz (vibrations per second), dogs can hear up to 60,000 Hz. Dogs’ large ears are on the top of their heads, prime real estate to pick up noises humans miss. Plus, they have about 18 ear muscles, which allow them to rotate, tilt and raise their ears to get an amplified sound. In fact, scientists say that the reason dogs tilt their heads might be because of their awesome hearing.

Our eyes get more accustomed to darkness the longer we’re exposed to it. Dogs, on the other hand, have eyes that are made to automatically see well in the dark. Their large pupils let more light in, and the rods in their eyes work better in dim light. But the biggest factor is the tapetum, which reflects light at the back of the eye. That helps them see in light that’s five times dimmer than what humans need to see clearly.

Take it from us: You don’t want to challenge your dog to a race. On average, canines clock in at about 30 kilometres per hour, but many can go over 56 kph if they’re running in short spurts. The fastest dog breed is the greyhound, which can reach 72 kph. To compare, the fastest humans can only run 45 kph.

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