K-9 Dog’s Reward for Finding a Missing 11-Year-Old Girl Will Make Anyone Smile
Finding missing children is a huge priority for law enforcement, and always a tense situation to have to deal with. CBS News shared a video on Tuesday, January 30th of a K9 dog, Mary Lu, sniffing out a missing 11-year-old girl in Wimauma, Florida.
The video shows the dog sniffing around what looks like a public restroom in a park or other public place. The officer who works with Mary Lu reports that she has "happy tail" a signal she gives to let the officer know she's on the trail of who she's looking for. In the next clip, the female officer tells the little girl, who was hiding in the restroom, to come out so that they could talk to her and that she's not in trouble. Mary Lu looks so happy that she found the girl! Her reward for finding the girl is giving her a big kiss...something they both seem happy about!
Mary Lu was so excited that she was able to sniff out the little girl! @CBS News was able to report a happy ending to this story, and I was glad that they were able to find the little girl. I appreciated @beautiful_creature's comment, "I love how these officers were being kind and let her pet the dog". I'm sure the little girl was very scared, and that Mary Lu helped settle her fear!
Related: K-9 Police Dog Throws a Fit Because Dad Won't Let Him Lie Down With the Baby
Dogs and Their Incredible Sense of Smell
If you have a pet dog, you already know that dogs love to smell everything, and there's a good reason for it. Depending on the breed, dogs have a sense of smell that is 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than humans, so they learn everything they need to know by the things they smell. This is why law enforcement uses dogs to find drugs, missing people, bombs, and why the medical community uses dogs to help people with life threatening medical conditions, like diabetes.
According to AnimalPlanet.com, the portion of the dog’s brain that controls smell is 40 times larger than ours, and a dog’s nose and ability to smell are their primary means of communication. Dogs smell each other to learn about each other. Just from smelling another dog, a dog knows the other dog's "reproductive status, age, sex, interactions, travel history, and even disposition." They can even tell if the other dog is sick!
A dog's sense of smell is incredible! I knew that they smelled a lot more than we do, but I had no idea that they smelled up to 100,000 times more than we do. It's amazing when you stop and really think about it.
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