Can dogs smell the time?

Dogs can smell the time, apparently. This is not a new discovery. It was discussed ten years ago by canine cognition scientist Alexandra Horowitz. But I just saw the phenomenon mentioned in the Gillian McAllister novel, That Night, the main protagonists of which are veterinarians, and thought I’d revisit the idea a decade late! They can tell when their owner is due back from work by how much of them they can still smell in the air. Horowitz was interviewed by the American Kennel Club around the time her book Being a Dog: Following the Dog into a World of Smell was published. The book discusses in detail the superpower that is the canine sense of smell. “Smells in a room change as the day goes on,” she told the AKC. “If we were able to visualise the movement of air through the day, what we’re really visualising is the movement of odour through the day.” In an earlier interview with a UK magazine, she went as far as to say dogs can smell time: “Each day wears a new smell,” she told the…