Is sniffing calming for dogs?
Marco McKenzie
2025-06-27 00:40:01
Count answers: 12
Sniffing is a natural behavior for dogs. It's how they explore their environment, learn about other animals, and even find food. Reduces stress: Sniffing can help to reduce stress in dogs by releasing endorphins, which have mood-boosting effects. If your dog is feeling anxious or stressed, taking them for a walk in a quiet area where they can sniff freely can help to calm them down. Another study linked walking and sniffing freely to lowered heart rate and blood pressure in dogs. Mental stimulation: Sniffing is a great way to mentally enrich and stimulate your dog and encourage natural species specific behavior. This can help to keep them engaged and one study indicated that these positive emotional state of sniffing lead to a more optimistic outlook.
Johnathon Treutel
2025-06-27 00:37:24
Count answers: 8
Sniffing can also be very calming for dogs. A meandering, sniff session on a long-leash can release the mood-boosting chemical in their brain called dopamine. It’s a lot like a yoga or meditation session for your pup. Sniffing activates and exercises the brain and can make them feel just as tired as after a fast-paced walk. If you’ve ever had to study for an exam, it’s similar to that kind of tiredness. Even though you’ve probably been sitting in a chair for most of the time, you still feel tired after studying as your brain has been taking in so much information. Think of sniffing for dogs like social media for us humans, it’s how they get their news. Dogs have incredibly sensitive noses with up to 300 million scent receptors. When you compare this to a human’s 6 million, we start to see why dogs enjoy sniffing so much. That’s why these slower walks, where a dog can stop and smell the flowers can be more pleasurable for your dog as they can glean so much information from a smell and it’s incredibly enriching for them. All dogs are individual with their own needs and preferences, but sniffing is incredibly enriching for them.
Jaylen Block
2025-06-26 22:31:46
Count answers: 10
Sniffing is hugely beneficial for dogs and essential for their wellbeing. It’s stimulating too - experts tell us just 20 minutes of sniffing is equivalent to an hour’s walk in terms of enrichment for your dog. Sniffing is your dog’s way of making sense of the world around them - and it provides lots of mental stimulation, which can help keep their brain healthy as well as their body. As humans, we are very visual, but for dogs smells are everything. It’s tempting to hurry our dogs along when time is short, but giving them time to sniff is almost as important as the physical exercise they get from a walk. Pay attention to the things your dog likes to sniff the most. We bet when you see how much joy it brings them, you’ll be much more inclined to let them have time to sniff more frequently. Sniffing is hugely beneficial for dogs and essential for their wellbeing.
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