You ain’t ringing the bell I’m ready when you are
It’s said that dogs sniff each other as a kind of canine equivalent to the human handshake; an otherwise meaningless “greeting ceremony” which reportedly started in medieval times as a way of checking the other guy for weapons.
But is it really just a social gesture? Does it have an adaptive purpose? (…)
We know that at least 33% of a dog’s brain is devoted to processing olfactory information whle in humans that figure is closer to about 5%.
Marc Bekoff wrote that “[a dog’s nose] can distinguish T-shirts worn by identical twins, follow odor trails, and are 10,000 times more sensitive than humans to certain odors.” (…) So if a dog’s nose can pick up information from yellow snow, from the fear that hangs in the air after another dog leaves an examination room, from scents left behind by the shoes of an escaped prisoner, or from lifting its nostrils to the wind, why would a dog need to stick his nose directly into another dog’s snout, genitals, and nether regions to garner social information? Couldn’t he do that at a “safer” distance? (…)
Dog trainer and natural philosopher Kevin Behan says it’s a way of grounding themselves. “Anytime there is … any change, any stimulus or stimulation, and especially when stressed, dogs need to smell something.”
related { Answers about exploring New York with your dog. }
