“Do you wanna gooo… sniffies?” A change of perspective.

Super Smell!

Dogs see the world differently to humans. In fact, dogs predominantly ‘see’ with their nose! Did you know, depending on the breed or type a dog’s sense of smell is around 10,000 - 100,000 times better than human’s? If you compare this to human sight, humans are able to see about a third of a mile away. If a dog’s sight was as strong as his smell, they’d be able to see more than 3,000 miles away! How impressive is that!

This means your dog’s daily sniff routine is key for them to process their surroundings.  

Dog Walks and Dog Sniffs

Often, dog owners/walkers get impatient because they are keen to make sure the dog gets the exercise they need. So it’s easy to drag the dogs along not realising that as they are sniffing, they are actually trying to see the environment and process the information. Most of all, the dogs enjoy sniffing and are stimulated by it, just as we enjoy looking around at our surroundings on walks.

As dog owners and dog walkers we need to make sure we give the dogs time to sniff. It is a very stimulating exercise for them and uses a large part of their brains. Sniffing can even help to calm reactive or anxious dogs because it gives them chance to research their environment to see if it is safe.

A short poem

All their noses to the ground
This is the way they go around
Sniffing out who's gone before
This is how your dogs explore.

By Dani Collings, Owner of Harbour Tails Dog Walking