Dogs need to stop and ‘smell the roses,’ too
One of the best things about having a dog is that they get you out of the house and on a good walk or hike. It’s even better when it’s at a brisk pace. But I often found myself getting annoyed when my dog, Bowie, wants to stop and smell every single shrub, tree or fence post. He’s constantly stopping to “smell the roses” when all I want to do is get moving. And when he discovers a particularly alluring smell (to him), he anchors himself there. But then I remember that for a dog, their need to smell things is not only compelling but incredibly important for their well-being.
We all know that dogs have a superior sense of smell. But did you know that theirs outranks our own by orders of magnitude? It’s 10,000 to 100,000 times as acute.
Dogs can detect some odors in parts per trillion. In her book, “Inside of a Dog,” Alexandra Horowitz, a dog cognition researcher at Barnard College, writes that while we might notice if our coffee has had a teaspoon of sugar added to it, a dog could detect a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water — or two Olympic-sized pools worth. Another dog scientist likened their ability to catching a whiff of one rotten apple in 2 million barrels.
Dogs possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared with about 6 million in us. And the part of a dog’s brain that’s devoted to analyzing smells is, proportionally speaking, 40 times greater than ours.
Dogs have used their super sniffers to help humans for decades in finding missing persons and sniffing out drugs and bombs. In recent years, it’s come to light that a dog can smell the subtle chemical differences between healthy and cancerous tissue. Now, there are even COVID-smelling dogs. According to the Humane Animal Connection, “research into the efficacy of COVID-detection dogs is being conducted in several countries, including the United States and some studies report 83% sensitivity or accuracy to detect positive cases of COVID, and 96% specificity or accuracy of negativity.
In Finland, travelers are even being screened by dogs at the Helsinki airport and there are reports that these trained dogs can accurately detect the presence of the COVID virus five days before the person is even experiencing symptoms.”
In addition to “scenting,” as it’s called, being enjoyable for dogs, it’s actually extremely beneficial for their mental and physical health. Scenting is almost like working on a puzzle for humans or working on a math problem. It can be mentally tiring, which is great for dogs and can ease many behavior issues.
At Marin Humane, shelter dogs are treated to scenting work whenever possible. According to Kathleen Call, behavior consultant and certified nose work instructor, offering dogs an opportunity to use their noses eases stress, reduces excessive barking and improves sleep.
“In my role at the shelter, I’ve witnessed the extraordinary impact a simple sniffing session can have on a highly stressed, overwhelmed, or under-stimulated dog,” Call writes. “After just one round of sniffing out the treat from a box, you can see dogs that are shutdown, nervous or mouthy begin to relax. Scenting is a rewarding outlet for stress and boredom and a great mental workout.”
Horowitz, the dog cognition researcher, suggests taking dogs on a “scent walk.” As she writes on Petmd.com, “A scent walk changes the focus of the walk from miles covered to odors logged, which probably requires a different mindset for most pet parents. Instead of having a specific destination, the route of a scent walk meanders as your dog absorbs and processes the scents along the way.”
If you want to see what your dog’s nose knows, check out Marin Humane’s nose work classes. Learn more and register at marinhumane.org/oh-behave.
One added benefit I discovered was that once I gave Bowie time to stop and smell his favorite things, it helped me slow down, too. Now I even stop and smell the roses. Lisa Bloch is the marketing and communications director at Marin Humane which contributes Tails of Marin articles and welcomes animal-related questions and stories about the people and animals in our community.
Go to marinhumane.org, Twitter.com/ marinhumane, or email lbloch@marinhumane.org.