Constantly I see people pulling on the dog’s leash while they are on their phone because the dog is taking too long to sniff…. but why is this wrong? Let’s dig in!
Our dogs are born with a heightened sense of smell but let me give you a clear picture of what this means. Just like us, dogs have a nose with a vomeronasal organ (also known as Jacobson’s organ) that oversees picking up smell molecules. To give you a comparison, humans have roughly 5 million scent receptors, while dogs can have up to 300 million and they also have a specialized brain region for processing odors that is 40 times larger than a human’s brain region. 33% of the dog’s brain is dedicated to scent with nostrils that are built to wiggle individually at a time to see where the scent is coming from.
So, what do we see whenever our dog sniffs at one spot? Initially, a dog picks up a scent and follows it. This scent can be fresh (within just a few hours) or weeks old but there is some key piece of information that our dog has picked up on. This can be information regarding other dogs in the area, other animals (local fauna), a female in heat, dietary information on other dogs, or even information regarding humans.
What also happens when we see our dog sniffing? The brain releases dopamine, the so called “happy hormone” that is linked to the reward center of the brain as well as motivation and most importantly, associated with pleasure. Sniffing, in turn, also helps a dog relax by reducing the levels of cortisol. This translates in the dog being able to better settle in the environment, also allowing for the dog to use their cognitive skills to work with the environment.
All of this just for smelling? Yes, but here is the trick: we need to allow for the dog to decide when they have had enough of the scent. Allowing for dogs to smell when they are attracted to a scent but also, providing them with sufficient time to gather all of the information they need will work in the long term in the betterment of your dog’s mental health.
So, the next time your dog stops to sniff, remember: they are not wasting time — they are gathering information, regulating themselves, and making sense of their environment in a way we simply cannot.
