Sniff Walks—the best sniffin’ thing since going outside

One of the easiest ways to make your dog happy is to let your dog take you for a walk. I’m not advocating for allowing a dog to drag you around, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I am talking about taking time, letting your dog stop to sniff anything he wants to, and allowing him to call the shots on which direction you turn along the way.

If he wants to snort around in circles for 5 minutes, go ahead! Let him at it! Here’s why—

A dogs sense of smell is amazing! They are so good at using their noses that many “dog jobs” involve simply tracking a scent; jobs like drug sniffing dogs, search and rescue, and bomb sniffing dogs. They even can detect things like seizures, cancer and low blood sugar for diabetics.

They see their world through their nose, so it makes scents that they really enjoy using it(shameless pun intended). Hounds are most often associated with having a great snout, and many who own them know “when his nose is working, his ears don’t.” Well dog friends, it’s not just hounds who love a good sniff.

For a dog, scent tracking can be similar to a good video game session to us. For us, video games are fun, entertaining, and we get to use our brains to solve puzzles.

Much in the same way, dogs have fun and use their brains to catalog all the smells they encounter on walks. Everything from the scent of other dogs, to other animals like birds and squirrels, to certain plants and so much more that we do not recognize, are all part of the game. A sniff walk can make a dog just as, if not more, tired than a normal walk because we are engaging their brain as well.

It’s easy to do, you don’t need to take any extra time out of your day to do it. Just go for a walk like you normally would, but let loose some slack and stop with him every time he finds a smell. Humor him if he changes direction, their might be something good smelling down their. Make sure to use your judgement when taking him on these walks to keep him safe. Click here for some Tips for a Successful Sniff Walk.

We take our dogs for a walk daily, but how many daily opportunities to we give them to make choices in the things they like? Often we ask our dogs to do everything on our terms and a sniff walk is an easy, safe, and fun way to give them a choice. They’ll be so sniffin’ glad you did.

#walk #dog