What is the use of dog whiskers

Dog whiskers are not grown for decoration.
We often call them beards, but strictly speaking, they are not beards, but tentacles or sensory hairs.
These tentacles can be different from other hairs. They are twice as thick as normal hairs and much thicker. Beard roots are three times deeper than normal hair roots
Although the beard itself does not have nerves, unlike other hairs, the hair follicles of the beard have a unique blood sac connection. Just a slight touch will cause pressure on the blood sac, the blood inside is squeezed, and a pulse-like stimulation is generated that reaches the mechanoreceptors at the base of the sensory hairs and is transmitted to the brain to detect subtle reflexes. So each whisker is a super-sensitive receptor during movement. Air flow or object contact will cause the beard to vibrate, stimulating the divine level. A dog’s whiskers are as sensitive as fingertips and play an extremely important role in helping the dog understand its environment and actions.

A dog’s whiskers are not as neat as a cat’s whiskers, but appear messy. Therefore, many owners will cut off their dogs’ beards because they are unsightly. But they don’t know that in order to make up for the limitations of the visual system, the dog’s whiskers have very powerful functions!

First let’s define what a beard means. On dogs, whiskers are thicker and thicker than normal hair, with roots three times deeper than other hairs. These special hairs are called whiskers. Unlike the 12 neatly arranged whiskers on both sides of a cat’s face, each dog’s whiskers are positioned differently and distributed irregularly. Some of your dog’s whiskers may be above the eyes, some near the nose, and some below the chin.

Beards are one of the first hairs to grow on dogs, and they are very important for newborn puppies. Because the hair follicles at the base of the whiskers are filled with nerve fibers, any slight contact will send signals to the brain. These tactile sensors can also respond to changes in airflow in the surrounding environment. In addition, dogs’ whiskers can move, and they may extend in the direction of objects of interest.
The whiskers near dogs’ eyes are used to protect their eyes. When air currents or certain objects cause the whiskers to bend, it indicates that something is about to touch the eye, and the dog will subconsciously blink protectively. Dogs can generally see things in the distance clearly, but things close up will be blurry. For example, when a dog approaches a partially open door, the edges of the door become blurred, making it difficult for the dog to judge the distance between them. The beards on both sides of the nose make up for this limitation.

The length of the whiskers at the ends of a dog’s nose roughly matches the width of their body. Therefore, when the dog approaches an object, these whiskers can sense strong changes in airflow and measure whether the space is wide enough for the dog to pass safely. This is also an important reason why dogs can travel unimpeded at night.

In addition to farsightedness, there is another reason why a dog’s visual system needs the assistance of whiskers. That is, the dog’s nose and mouth block part of its field of vision. This feeling is equivalent to us looking at a fist placed on the tip of the nose. When a dog’s sight falls close, their vision will become blurry due to the obstruction of the nose, and it will also become difficult to determine the distance of the object in front of them.
To solve this problem, dogs have two extra rows of whiskers near their mouths. One row is on the upper lip and grows downward to sense conditions near the mouth. The other row is on the chin and grows downward to sense conditions near the chin. Some scientists believe that these extra whiskers can not only tell the distance of objects under the nose, but also their size and shape.
Dogs have extremely strong senses of smell and hearing, but their eyesight is not that great. Therefore, they have powerful whiskers like radar detectors that act as their second pair of eyes. Although a dog’s beard looks messy, it actually protects the dog in all aspects. Therefore, poop owners should stop cutting off the dog’s beard for the sake of appearance. Doing so is tantamount to “blinding” the dog’s second pair of eyes!