Dogs are known for their incredible sense of smell and new preliminary research suggests that sniffing is partly how dogs “see” the world, by mapping connections between the nose to parts of the brain responsible for vision (Andrews et al 2022). Scientists estimate that a dog’s sense of smell may be many million times more sensitive than humans (Horowitz pg. 72).
If it’s safe, encourage sniffing anywhere and everywhere because it’s absolutely essential to our dog’s wellbeing. I intentionally tap into the power of sniffing in many of my behaviour modification plans because sniffing can help lower arousal, regulate nervous systems, provide the dog with critical information, promote calmness, and help fearful/anxious dogs gain confidence.
When dogs DON’T sniff at times when I would expect dogs to be sniffing or they sniff out of context, that’s usually a big red flag to dig deeper to understand why.
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