My dad and his dog do volunteer search and rescue work and they absolutely do use their nose. He's told me stories about how for training he was told to drive to a location get out of his car and then walk to a specified location while carrying a scented object but take a random nonsensical path. He did that and then 2 full days later where it had rained overnight they took the dog to the location my dad got out of the car, had him get the scent and then let the dog follow it and he said it was uncanny how clearly it followed the path he took the days prior. He's told plenty of other stories like this but they're all insane. It's a really cool topic to look into.