[Fluff] Nearly ten years into having a dog, and I am still confounded by two things

[hazax11]

[1] Why the smells at the end of the leash are so fascinating? I can at least imagine that not being able to reach a smell might be frustrating, but still. I walk far enough over so he can actually smell and then we stand there forever while he roots around. Doesn't happen within the leash's normal radius: no matter if the leash is short or long, any smell within its radius we can sniff once and keep going.

[2] How the hell he counts the poo bags in my pocket and adjusts for it on the fly? That I have no idea. It is very common for poos to math to "bags+1". Doesn't matter if I start with one bag or five, unless I jam a whole roll in my pocket he can exceed the number by exactly a one-count.

Tax

 

[lilshady25]

@hazax11 I like to think that when a dog pisses it leaves like a chapter of its auto-biography and its all dogs mission to collect a full book and thats why they're so depserate to sniff them because thats how they read. I also think this is why some smells are better than others because some just arent the book that dog is looking for.

 

[hazax11]

@lilshady25 Heh. I like to think of the sniff-pee as doggie facebook. It makes it much easier to justify letting him run around and mark a few [harmless] spots.

 

[sebaceouscyst]

@hazax11 I do too, and noticed the other day he was sniffing hard on a space that he and his friend had almost certainly peed on during a recent play date. I imagined it was like going through photos and remembering how fun it was.

 

[lilshady25]

@hazax11 So if my dogs incontinant is it a shit poster?

 

[hazax11]

@lilshady25 Technically, yes, I suppose so!

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@hazax11 I say that my dog is checking his pee-mail!

 

[amerikrainian]

@lilshady25 I assume they have to check and respond to “pee-mail”

 

[lilshady25]

@amerikrainian Thats why they only piss on certain spots that they smelled to reply to certain messages

 

[impulso]

@amerikrainian You beat me to it...

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@lilshady25 You and I have very similar thoughts. I compare my dog's smelling habits to that of someone reading an interesting book. That's why it matters so much where she poops in the yard and what direction. I've seen her do silly things to get just right. Like start and immediately stop and turn. And her nose is always going when she poops, you can see her little sniffs towards the direction she's facing.

 

[glmlost]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I really like this analogy. It’s like putting on your comfy clothes and sitting in your comfy chair/place with your favorite beverage or snack and diving in. I mean, I can enjoy a good book almost anywhere, but it’s especially nice to do it a certain way.

 

[deuseternus7]

@imagebeastmarkbeast When my dog spends 20 minutes sniffing a tree or the sidewalk I pretend she’s learning the entire history of the earth. For example “And 600 million years ago a dinosaur once peed here.”

 

[kelx3]

@lilshady25 I call it reading the news

 

[biblestudyresources]

@lilshady25 Exactly. e.g. "Hi, my name is Fido. I'm big and unneutered. I like to fetch balls and I am in pretty good health. In my next pee, I'll tell you about the cocker spaniel that also likes to walk around here, so keep sniffing!"

 

[hazax11]

@biblestudyresources

You'll never guess what happens at grass tuft #3!

Damn clickbait.

 

[sheffield]

@lilshady25 dogs sniffing outside is like us browsing the internet. a nonstop buffet of information.

 

[reinar]

@lilshady25 I imagine signatures being left everywhere. I get a mental image of their name signed in all those places.

 

[venutianpunk]

@hazax11 We humans can barely comprehend how much dogs smell. Dogs have 220 MILLION olfactory receptors, compared to a human’s 5 MILLION.

Can you imagine how much information they gather, how fascinating it is to them?

I do Nosework competition with my dog, and am astounded by how he can find a single drop of scent in a huge outbuilding barn in, like a minute’s time. And he LOVES it.

So if they wanna sniff around and do what God gifted them to do, well hey, they patiently hang on the couch with us when we’re on the internet, so...

As for your second question....it’s a law of the universe. That’s why I hang a roll from my leash

 

[aquadoodle]

@venutianpunk It’s funny though that even with that amazing sense of smell they still gotta shove their noses right up in it. It would be like me running up to everything outside and studying it from an inch away.