This might be the simplest way to improve walks with your dog. The other two? Choices and the right gear — we wrote about them too, read here.

Don’t dogs sniff on their own already? Indeed, they do, but often we humans limit or even prohibit this behaviour. By doing so, we also reduce our dog’s life quality and miss on amazing benefits. Such as walking beside a calmer and happier dog instead of a frustrated and lead pulling dog.

So, why letting dogs sniff is so important? There are two simple, but very profound reasons.

1. Sniffing is how dogs understand the world.

The sense of smell is the primary of all senses for dogs.* Their brains and bodies are wired to perceive even the most subtle of scents and decode them.

When you look at a path, you see, well a path…maybe a few plants, hopefully not any rubbish left behind. But your dog “sees” much more: someone who walked here, when they walked, who they were, in which direction they went, probably also how they were feeling. A dog’s nose reads a whole book of smells every time they go out. Prohibiting a dog to sniff is like asking a person to read a newspaper with their eyes closed.

Given that their world inside the house is quite restricted, walks are an opportunity for our dogs to get the very needed mental stimulation and to explore the world around them.

Smells are also a way of communication. A pee left by your dog is a sort of social media post containing a lot of information about its “author”.

So when you are prohibiting your dog to sniff, you also limit her world significantly.

2. The second huge reason to let your dog sniff is — sniffing is their way to calm down. Sniffing can even be a calming signal to others or a polite way to communicate.

A study done by our colleagues in France explored sniffing effect in dogs’ heart rate. They found that sniffing helped to bring the heart rate down significantly.

A dog who can put their nose to the ground and sniff throughout the walk has more chances of staying calm even in stressful situations. That’s exactly what we humans want too!

Hopefully, by this point in the article you already see that allowing your dog to sniff is a very easy way to have a more relaxed dog on a walk. It takes very little time and effort from your side, yet the effects are so profound. Wait, we have a few simple tricks to ensure your dog sniffs more and stays even more calm throughout the walk.

• Stop when your dog is about to stop. Usually, if you keep walking, the dog will keep walking too, especially if your pace is fast. Which brings us to the next point:

• Slow down — your dog will have more chances to catch smells, and you will have better opportunities to notice when your dog is about to stop. There is one more crucial benefit of slowing down — read about it in our previous article.

• Wait — once your dog started sniffing, collect all your patience and simply wait. We humans can only imagine what is going on in their heads when dogs are sniffing, but it’s surely a whole different world. Good news is that most sniffs take below 10 seconds, surely you can wait for your dog to finish an interesting sniff?

• Avoid wide spaces, for most dogs it’s harder to relax and sniff in a big open space. Instead, choose edges of buildings, higher grass, bushes, trees, etc, where more smells accumulate. You will immediately see your dog slowing down and sniffing more. (We always wonder why most dog training classes take place in those big open areas, for many dogs it’s so hard to keep calm there!)

• If your dog is an anxious / fearful walker, pick calmer times of the day with fewer people / dogs / vehicles around. So that your dog actually gets a chance to relax and gain benefits from their walk.

Phew, thank you for reading through, that’s all for now! Oh, and if you are looking to bring more sniffing and calmness to your home / garden as well, we have a few great snuffle toys on offer — have a look here.

READ NEXT:

Choices

Gear

Mental Stimulation for dogs

Additional resources:

Smiling Leash

Slow Dog Movement

Nordic Education Center for Ethical Dog Training

*References:

• Horowitz, Alexandra. Being a dog: Following the dog into a world of smell. Simon and Schuster, 2017.
• Horowitz, Alexandra. Inside of a dog: What dogs see, smell, and know. Simon and Schuster, 2010.
• Buzek, Anna, et al. "The shape of the nasal cavity and adaptations to sniffing in the dog (Canis familiaris) compared to other domesticated mammals: A review article." Animals 12.4 (2022): 517.