Which one of these would a dog prefer?
- A long, speedy walk on a short lead close to the owner's side and barely ever stopping.
- A shorter, slow walk on a long lead (or off lead), where they have all the time in the world to sniff everything.
When people go for a walk, we tend to be in motion all the time, we might stop to talk to someone, but other than that we are usually moving forward to our destination. This is how many people walk their dogs. That is probably not what the dog wants.
A dogs sense of smell is a lot better than ours and they use that to get a lot of information about us, other dogs, and the world in general. Their nose is a dog's main way of making sense of things.
Stanley Coren, a psychologist and author of many dog books, said
"Dogs read about the world through their noses, and they write their messages, at least to other dogs, in their urine."
When a dog stops to sniff a lamppost, she's catching up on the latest news and gossip!
Giving your dog plenty of time to stop and sniff is good for them. It gives them a mental workout and it also tires them out. It's been suggested that just 15 minutes of intense sniffing and exploring is roughly equal to an hour of hard exercise. A long, fast walk is not the only way to tire your dog out.
A study in the Journal of Applied Animal Behaviour Science concluded that allowing a dog to do more "nosework" resulted in them being more optimistic, and is a key factor in improved animal welfare.
Sniffing each other
Dogs don't just love to sniff the world around them, they love to sniff each other too!
Some people find it embarrassing when their dog greets another dog by sniffing their bum, but this is totally normal for the dog and their way of saying hello.
The Mental Floss website says:
When one dog greets another with a nose in the derrière, it’s basically getting a brief biography of its new friend, written in scent molecules and pheromones. To the sides of a dog’s butt are pouches called anal sacs; these contain glands which secrete chemicals that can tell a sniffer a lot of information about their owner, like gender, reproductive status, and clues about its health, diet, and even emotional state. It may seem like a strange way to go about it, but butt sniffing is just the canine version of shaking hands and introducing yourself.
Dogs love to use their noses, we should let them.