For decades I've been interested in "all things dog," focusing on their cognitive, emotional, and moral lives, and how they sense their world. Anyone who's spent even a short amount of time around dogs knows they love to snort and sniff just about everything, including odors we find utterly repulsive. We all know dogs like to stick their noses everywhere, and they often snort when they’re doing it or shortly thereafter.

Their supersensitive noses are legendary, so much so that their approach to life could be summed up as “sniff first, ask questions later.” When they can, dogs will spend upwards of 33% of their time with their noses pinned to the ground, and we also know they'll freely put their noses into body parts, including groins and butts, that we think are disgusting and totally human inappropriate, but totally dog appropriate.

I'm an ethologist who studies various animals and watch them very carefully. The question at hand here is could a dog know I had had a previous stressful encounter with another dog? I wanted to consider their point of view given their unique sensory capacities.

Yesterday I was attacked by a dog while riding my gravel bike north of Boulder (Colorado). The dog had my entire right calf in his large mouth and when I yelled as he bit down he released his grasp and ran back into his backyard. I was shaken but okay, just some scratches and a small puncture wound. I continued my ride and kept........

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