"Buddy" sounds like a keeper for sure.
I think a lot of folks significantly underestimate the power and sensitivity of a dog's sense of smell. They have something called a Jacobson's Organ that responds to scents comprised of larger molecules that often have no detectable odor. In fact, I read once that when a bloodhound fails to find the person they are looking for, it is often because a person smells different, on different parts of their body (arm vs. leg, for example). There is even evidence that some dogs can sniff-out a Ziplock bag of lunchmeat at the bottom of a lake. (I am not making this up!)
As for eyesight: Dogs are bi-chromatic, seeing blue and yellow best. (Buy toys that are blue and/or yellow!) Their long vision is weak, but vision up close is superb. Motion detection is also excellent. But of course, it all comes at the "price" of not being tri-chromatic, as we humans are.
As for sound, I know my dachshund can hear just about anything. "Harley" is my 4th dachshund, but he is totally different from all the others. He doesn't like to dig!!
He's pretty much an "Alpha-Dog"! If I took him out metal detecting, he would get bored very quickly and definitely go get into trouble somewhere. Either that, or when the metal detector made a noise, he would try to play-bite the coil, or something. He's a weird dog, for sure.
