No, you aren’t seeing double: Toby, an Australian shepherd, has two noses—each with one nostril. His remarkable anatomy may be the result of abnormal genes, or units of hereditary material, says Adam Boyko, who studies canine genetics at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
At least three dog breeds commonly display similar double noses, but Australian shepherds aren’t among them. Two-nosed dogs don’t seem to mind their extra sniffer and are perfectly healthy.
In fact, their widely separated nostrils might help the animals better gauge which direction a scent is coming from, says Boyko. Toby’s owner, Todd Ray of Venice, California, says that Toby excels at tasks such as finding hidden objects.