Benji having a good sniff around the paved area, however this area was not worth of scenting, the tree close by was chosen for this.
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I have lost count of the number of people I have seen taking their dogs out for walks and saying ‘Fluffy, hurry up, enough smelling, let’s go! – sound familiar? We think that just by taking our dogs out for a walk we are doing the best we can - this is wonderful, however we can do more!
If only they realized that the mental stimulation the dog receives by scenting and sniffing is doing him as much good, if not more good that a fast and energetic walk - not only is the sniffing and smelling beneficial, it is something that dogs need – additionally it can also help to improve their behaviour!
We all know that due to their amazing sense of smell dogs are used for search and rescue, finding cadavers, in detection work such as drugs, firearms etc – they are even used to scent out various types of cancers in the human body and seizure alert trained dogs can sense and let their humans know when a seizure is about to happen – knowing all this, it should make it obvious to us that our dogs scenting is not just something they like – it is something they really need in order to satisfy their natural instinct!
Why? Without going into details about the dog’s sense of smell, we just have to realize that dogs have over 100 million sensory receptor sites in the nasal cavity compared to only 5 – 10 million in humans and they also devote a lot more brain power to interpreting smells – an area of about 40 times larger than the comparable part of the human brain.
When your dog is sniffing the ground, and tasting the air around him, he is receiving very detailed information from the amines and acids left by the other dog – these are a bit like a chemical aroma and gives the dog information such as whether the other dog was male or female, whether intact or sterilized and it is believed that they can even pick up on whether the other dog is happy, angry, it's health, its social status etc. When one dog smells the butt of another dog, they are picking up even more detailed information.
In an article I read a while ago by Dr. Marty Becker, he said that according to a study done by Dr. Anneke Lisberg, intact males with high social order are most likely to overmark or pee over another dogs scent, while females tend to mark mearby, as opposed to
on top of the urine left by another dog.
Dr. Lisberg's work also suggests that female dogs are interested in both male and female pee mail, while male dogs are primarily interested in what other male dogs lifted on. For all dogs, unfamiliar urine got more attention than familiar urine, and that’s not really surprising: A stranger who walks onto your property will get more scrutiny than someone you recognize, after all, like a friend or relative.
So, while taking your dog for a run or a jog is great, it really does not supply the mental stimulation that a slow scenting walk can supply.
As behaviourists we see over and over that when a dog is taken out for a nice scenting walk, it really does affect their behaviour in general – even dogs that go for daily runs or jogs. They become calmer and more balanced and behaviour overall improves. It does not have to be an hour’s walk – just extend your current walking period by 5 minutes so that your dog can finish investigating the scent it is involved in smelling, or don’t walk as far and let your dog smell more. I would think from a human perspective that being pulled away from a scent being investigated could possibly be compared to somebody pulling me away from a good tv program I was enjoying – difference is that I am not as forgiving as a dog!
To stimulate your dog’s sense of smell further, you can make scent trails around the garden – hide a treat under objects and let your dog figure it out. Here is a link to 8 fun scent games you can use for your own dog.
http://moderndogmagazine.com/articles/8-fun-scent-games-your-dog-will-love/80052
Most of us really love our dogs and want to do the best for them, so do bear in mind that an extra 5 minutes or so of smelling may be giving them a wonderful gift that will make them happier, calmer and more balanced in general.
If only they realized that the mental stimulation the dog receives by scenting and sniffing is doing him as much good, if not more good that a fast and energetic walk - not only is the sniffing and smelling beneficial, it is something that dogs need – additionally it can also help to improve their behaviour!
We all know that due to their amazing sense of smell dogs are used for search and rescue, finding cadavers, in detection work such as drugs, firearms etc – they are even used to scent out various types of cancers in the human body and seizure alert trained dogs can sense and let their humans know when a seizure is about to happen – knowing all this, it should make it obvious to us that our dogs scenting is not just something they like – it is something they really need in order to satisfy their natural instinct!
Why? Without going into details about the dog’s sense of smell, we just have to realize that dogs have over 100 million sensory receptor sites in the nasal cavity compared to only 5 – 10 million in humans and they also devote a lot more brain power to interpreting smells – an area of about 40 times larger than the comparable part of the human brain.
When your dog is sniffing the ground, and tasting the air around him, he is receiving very detailed information from the amines and acids left by the other dog – these are a bit like a chemical aroma and gives the dog information such as whether the other dog was male or female, whether intact or sterilized and it is believed that they can even pick up on whether the other dog is happy, angry, it's health, its social status etc. When one dog smells the butt of another dog, they are picking up even more detailed information.
In an article I read a while ago by Dr. Marty Becker, he said that according to a study done by Dr. Anneke Lisberg, intact males with high social order are most likely to overmark or pee over another dogs scent, while females tend to mark mearby, as opposed to
on top of the urine left by another dog.
Dr. Lisberg's work also suggests that female dogs are interested in both male and female pee mail, while male dogs are primarily interested in what other male dogs lifted on. For all dogs, unfamiliar urine got more attention than familiar urine, and that’s not really surprising: A stranger who walks onto your property will get more scrutiny than someone you recognize, after all, like a friend or relative.
So, while taking your dog for a run or a jog is great, it really does not supply the mental stimulation that a slow scenting walk can supply.
As behaviourists we see over and over that when a dog is taken out for a nice scenting walk, it really does affect their behaviour in general – even dogs that go for daily runs or jogs. They become calmer and more balanced and behaviour overall improves. It does not have to be an hour’s walk – just extend your current walking period by 5 minutes so that your dog can finish investigating the scent it is involved in smelling, or don’t walk as far and let your dog smell more. I would think from a human perspective that being pulled away from a scent being investigated could possibly be compared to somebody pulling me away from a good tv program I was enjoying – difference is that I am not as forgiving as a dog!
To stimulate your dog’s sense of smell further, you can make scent trails around the garden – hide a treat under objects and let your dog figure it out. Here is a link to 8 fun scent games you can use for your own dog.
http://moderndogmagazine.com/articles/8-fun-scent-games-your-dog-will-love/80052
Most of us really love our dogs and want to do the best for them, so do bear in mind that an extra 5 minutes or so of smelling may be giving them a wonderful gift that will make them happier, calmer and more balanced in general.
Most of us think of Tumeric as a spice in the kitchen we use in cooking - however there is so much more that this can do to help our dogs
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How animal hording develops - Factors that can contribute to animal hoarding fall into three categories: personal, household and community.
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It is so often said that the dog bite happened with no warning - no true most of the time - the warning signs were just not noticed.
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