What Is The Purpose Of Dogs Having Whiskers. They are sensitive to vibrations in air currents. Without them their confidence and even their motor skills can suffer. Nearly 40 percent of the canine brain can detect when something touches a dogs face especially the region where the whiskers are located. These hairs also aid animals moving about under the cover of night essentially acting as a second set of eyes.
Much more important however is the fact that at the base of each vibrissa is a high concentration of touch-sensitive neurons so that the slightest pressure on that stiff hair will produce a. The technical term for whiskers is vibrissa 1 and they are more important than the hair that humans grow on our faces. Whiskers or vibrissae are long coarse hairs protruding from a. What Are Dogs Whiskers For. They are sensitive to vibrations in air currents. 4 Dog Whiskers Have A Protective Function On top of providing information about a dogs surroundings so the dog can navigate safely whiskers also fulfill an important protective role.
It will not hurt your dog though if you like his whiskers next time just explain to your groomer that you would like the whiskers only slightly trimmed or left alone.
If your dog perceives the information received through these vibrations as a threat he can use this information against the predator in defense. First let us define what we mean by a. The whiskers on your face are a lot different from the ones on your pets. But when you think about how sensitive whiskers are and how important they are to dogs you may want to avoid having your dogs whiskers trimmed. Humans dont have whiskers but most other mammals do. Cats use their facial whiskers to determine if they can fit into narrow spaces and the whiskers on their legs may aid them in sensing prey or climbing trees.