My Puppy, My Self

It's interesting to think about... I've enjoyed observing dogs together with curiousity since my 10 yr old was a puppy.

But what about the idea that the sniffing-each-other dogs are gathering more precise information about the other... changes in diet, health, etc.? That they have to be close to the smell to get details?
[not that they think "I wonder what Bowser had for supper?"!]

Hey, Shani,

It's true. Dogs may very well pick up lots of olfactory information thru sniffing one another. But I think Kevin Behan is right; the primary reason they do it is to ground their excess bio-electrical energy. This is evidenced by the fact that they'll periodically re-sniff each other during play, or when any new energy is added to the equation even though they may have already gotten all the information they can about the other dog's diet, health, etc.

The other day I was out with a dog who had a really good sniff fest with a 2nd dog. Then they played for a while until a 3rd dog came along. The 2nd dog immediately sniffed the 3rd dog while the dog I was with re-sniffed the dog he'd sniffed previously. He already had plenty of information about that dog. He presumably had none about the 3rd dog, yet he sniffed the 2nd dog first. (And dogs don't "make mistakes" about what they choose to sniff.)

Also, why do dogs sniff objects that startled or frightened them? And why would a dog need to sniff a dog he lives with if he's only interested in gathering information about that dog's health and diet? Wouldn't he know all about that anyway, just from living with that dog?

And finally, what purpose would there be in gathering information about what the other dog's diet is like? What is the dog supposed to do with that information?

The simplest explanation, as long as it satisfactorily explains all aspects of a behavior, is usually the best.

Anyway, that's how I see it,

LCK

It's true that for human beings just looking at other people, or even scanning our environment, releases dopamine. So you're right: dopamine is probably also a factor when dogs sniff each other.

As for your female, I've written here that dominance and submission are misnomers. These behaviors are actually expressions of nervous tension. (The pharmacological treatment for dominance aggression is some form of anti-anxietal medication.) So there's probably another explanation for your dog's selective peeing.

From my experience, most dogs, male and female, tend to pee on top of urine marks that increase their levels of nervous tension. And while they may sniff and sniff and sniff certain urine marks almost obsessively, and even wag their tails while they're sniffing them, those are the marks that they're least likely to pee on top of.

Perhaps this topic needs an article of its own!

LCK

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/my-puppy-my-self/200904/is-your-dog-...

I have just discovered this blog, and I am having a fascinating afternoon reading through it. From observations of my own dogs, I suspect there are many things at play in sniffing. Firstly, they do much more intensive sniffing of a strange dog, or one they have not met for a while - we tend to use the same walks several times a week, so the pee-mail theory of matching a dog up to the scent it has left behind makes a lot of sense (!) in this context. Secondly, in most European conuntires - and increasingly worldwide - a handshake is the formal greeting for people one does not know well, or (especially between men!) people one knows well, but on a formal basis. Once the greeting is less formal - between friends and family, for example - it progresses to two or more kisses on the cheek - or formalised air kisses. It would be very, very interesting to know at which point dogs shift from a concentration on sniffing each others' bums (highly informative, and reasonably safe), to sniffing/licking each others' faces (juvenile behaviour, and requiring a fair degree of confidence and trust). Interactions with cats, of course, are a whole new ball game - the sight of my young dogs freezing and almost wincing when the cats come to politely touch noses is a lesson to me not to assume they understand what my efforts at communication mean, either!

Hi, Frances,

Thanks for your interest.

I think the more telling phenomena is that dogs who know each other quite well, even dogs who live together, will occasionally sniff one another. This indicates that the old idea that dogs sniff each other to garner information about strange dogs only, is flawed.

I agree that dogs can often tell the scent of a "friend" by their urine marks, what I don't agree with is the idea that the first dog left the mark to communicate anything. (See "Why Do Dogs Mark?")

Thanks again,

LCK

Last night we had the neighbor's dog over to play with our three dogs and all our dogs were chasing the visiting dog around and were either sniffing, or being sniffed the whole time. While we were sitting there supervising the dogs playing, I starting thinking that there could be more than a simple hand shake involved here. What if they are also smelling the butt and mouth so much so see what the dog has been eating? My husband thinks this sounds absolutely crazy, so I ended up looking it up on the internet, and I found a lot of butt sniffing blogs and articles, but I haven't really found what I am looking for yet... (maybe it is crazy haha) It's just an idea anyways, but I know how much dogs love food. Maybe one of the things they pick up from sniffing the butt, mouth, other poop, ect.... is what is in the other dog's diet. It could be a part of a survival instinct or something... if a dogs butt smells like meat and there's a food smell in his breath, maybe he is a good hunter or has food somewhere.... Maybe if there are a lot of dog poops around there must be a source of food around? I know my dogs are not hungry looking for food, I am just thinking that might be part of there instinct. They don't just smell sidewalks to see who has been there, if they find something while they are sniffing around that looks good to eat they eat it. A lot of what dogs do is geared towards food. Anyways, just a crazy theory I have. Nobody has the answers to everything, and unfortunately, nobody will ever know the exact reason why dogs do what they do, what they are thinking, and how they really feel, unless they start speaking human and come right out and tell us! haha :)

One of the riddles we've still to unlock about our canine friends is the actual extent and range of their sense of smell. We have theories but not actual hard comparisons of the range of a dog's sensory power in this area. In fact I think we still have an awful lot to discover in this area. Our dogs sniffing is probably the equivalent of what we would do when we undergo extensive medical tests. They'll know about health, genes, territory and a whole lot more just in one single sniff.

Hi,
I came across this forum and wondered if you could help with a problem. We have two dogs, brought together from two different households into a new shared home. My dog Max is a neutered, male rescued sprollie, 8 years old, who has been with us for 6 years and is settled, although he can be a little submissive to men still (he was poorly treated). My partner's dog is an un-neutered 8 year old British Bulldog, half the size of my dog, and the problem is that he tries to sniff Max's 'bits'constantly. It worries and upsets Max a lot, he tolerates it most of the time but occasionally snaps back and has bitten the other dog's ear and face. The bulldog will actively seek Max out every time they are in a room together and corner him. The only thing we can do is to have them in separate rooms. When they are out walking together it rarely happens, although the bulldog doesn't like Max to be in front of him on a pathway and will try to dominate him by veering Max off course if he tries to run past him. The sniffing situation is much worse since we have moved into a new home together (the only move the bulldog has ever experienced). Do you think the behaviour stems from some anxiety issues (it did happen before but to a lesser extent) and do you please have any advice about what we might do to address this?
Lisa