For Dogs Sake, Let Them Sniff

I watched a woman walking her dog earlier in the week and it reminded me that I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while.

The lady was dressed in fitness clothing, so it’s possible/likely she was out walking with ‘purpose’ shall we say, and she had a medium sized dog with her, being walked on a lead attached to a flat collar (which is not the issue here, the resulting effect would have been just as sad, although perhaps not so physically damaging)

The whole time the lady was in view her head was fixed facing forward, looking in the direction she was going. Not once did she look at the dog walking with her, but what was really sad was the fact that her dog stopped to sniff the verge and she was either completely unaware or didn’t care or want the dog to stop and sniff, because she just kept marching forward, yanking the dog out of it’s sniff without even glancing back at it.

Within ten seconds the dog tried to cock it’s leg up the verge to have a wee, and exactly the same thing happened. She was either oblivious (face fixated forward) or determined she wasn’t going to break her walking pace for anything.

The poor little dog just got yanked out of it’s wee as she continued to march on without even looking back at him. It was so sad to watch, but what’s even more sad is that this is something I see often when I’m out and about. Dogs being marched along at a pace so fast they probably struggle to even catch a whiff of the sniffs on the ground let alone stop and actually sniff them.

Imagine being taken to a shopping centre full of your favourite shops and being marched round, not being allowed to stop and look at anything?

Imagine being taken to a concert and being made to wear ear defenders so you couldn’t hear anything?

Imagine being taken to watch your favourite sport and being made to wear a blindfold?

We are free to come and go from our houses as and when we please, as many times as we please, stay out for as long as we want, choose the places we visit and what we do while we are there.

We control practically everything our dogs can and can’t do.

Our dogs get no choice, or very little choice in when they go out, how long they go out for, where they go while they’re out and what they’re allowed to do while they’re out, and yet this is the ONLY time they get to leave the confines of the house.

If you want to do something specific on your walk that prevents you from allowing your dogs to meander, sniff, and explore, then why not consider going without them because the limited time they spend outside the home in an environment so rich with new and interesting sensory information, should be THEIR TIME, THEIR WALK (as much as is possible).

The information our dogs gather with their noses is not only interesting and mentally stimulating (satisfying an intrinsic need), it is also AN ESSENTIAL PART of how they LEARN about the world around them. Sniffing provides our dogs with information that we can’t even begin to comprehend.

Sniffing can be fundamental in building confidence, developing resilience, lowering anxiety to name but a few, all of which are things that are MAJOR CONTRIBUTING FACTORS to reducing problematic behaviours outside on walks (in conjunction with some structured and progressive teaching of course)

So please, for your Dog’s Sake, Let Them Sniff, it’s THIER time outside, let them explore and as much as is possible, choose how and where they spend that limited time outside the confines of home.

Yes, there are times when we are not able to let our dogs go the way they want, or even sniff or pee in certain places for whatever reason. Maybe we need to move on, or need to move them away from a trigger, or it's not a place that's appropriate to let them pee.

So yes there are situations that justify not allowing a dog to sniff or pee, but if/when that is the case, it's very easy to establish a clear communication to our dogs that we need to keep moving in that moment.

Teach a simple instructional cue that clearly lets your dog know that stopping, sniffing, peeing is not available to them at that time, rather than simply preventing them from sniffing at all, or continuing to march forward without any communication to your dog whatsoever and simply pulling them away or yanking them along behind.

This for me personally is not an ok thing to be doing.

Sometimes there has to be balance, yes, but for things like being in a hurry or short on time, then I will always adjust the distance of a walk to allow for sniffing time rather than simply marching along to cover the normal distance in quick time.

Categories: Dog Communication, Living with Romanian Rescue Dogs, Understanding Your Romanian Dog