Importance of Sniff Walks

This weeks blog post is all about allowing your dog the freedom to sniff and explore our world through the use of their nose. It is well known that our dog's noses are much more sensitive to smells than us as humans, so this is used in various professional capacities – including drug detection dogs, search and rescue dogs, and service animals. Dogs have been shown to have up to 300 million scent receptors in their nose, compared to our 6 million scent receptors, on top of this dogs also have a Jacobson’s organ or vomeronasal organ which traps the scent inside their nasal cavity. This organ allows our dogs to gain a much more in-depth picture of the world around them using smell. This organ also allows them to taste the scent due to the placement of the organ in the roof of their mouths. The age of our dogs has also been shown to affect the length of time they spend sniffing, a puppy is more likely to spend longer sniffing in comparison to an adult dog, which shows that may be an element of social learning in sniffing.

Photo credit to LovePup Training - https://lovepuptraining.com/blog/f/blog-series---how-do-dogs-learn-1

However, allowing dogs to sniff while out on walks is often forgotten, in favour of prioritising physical exertion rather than mental. Fatigue doesn’t just come from physical work but mental work too, which is why humans can be just as tired after doing a mentally taxing task as a physical task. This isn’t to say that physical work isn’t important, but owners can often forget that mental work needs to be an element of their dog's exercise and daily life. Allowing dogs to sniff while on walks or incorporating it into their playtime allows them to express natural autonomous behaviours, which is in line with crucial points in animal welfare. Sniffing can be completed through more than just slowing down on their daily walk and allowing them to sniff and follow their noses, it can often be made into games to entertain them in the home such as find it or hide and seek games.

There are many items out there for sale to assist in find it games, but simply placing treats around the house or the garden will encourage them to sniff it out and ‘find it’. Some owners also use toys for this work as well, the most important thing is that you pick a reward for your dog that is highly valued whether it be food or a favourite toy.