When I blow in my dogs face (sorry if you were expecting something else) he gets mad. But if I stick him in the car and wind the window down and drive around, he likes nothing better than to stick his face in the air rushing past. Is my blow not good enough for him? Can anyone explain?
Doesn’t the same thing apply to humans? Have someone blow air in your face, and see how much you like it. I’m willing to bet you won’t care for it. I think it’s because air from a smaller source- your mouth- is irritating because it’s concentrated on a small part of your face, whereas air from a larger opening- the open window- blows pretty much evenly on your whole head.
Why does it feels good to have a lot of air blowing on your head in the first place? I dunno. It just does. Maybe it’s the element of danger and excitement. Or maybe it just cools you down. All I know is that if I do it for too long, stuff ends up flying into my contacts. ::sigh::
Given your SN, I have to ask–
Is your dog a chihuahua named Ren, by any chance? 
Maybe you have bad breath :). Hey, your dog DOES have a very sensitive sense of smell, right?
I honestly hesitated before opening this thread, finger poised on the back button. Phew.
I think it maybe has something to do with the pheremones or something on your breath, maybe it feels assaultive (is that a neologism?) to your dog. I notice both of my dogs like to get up close to my face & “smell” my breath, especially when they haven’t seen me all day. But blowing in their faces seems to bother them.
No, I don’t have bad breath.
Yes, they both love sticking their heads out the car window. Though I don’t let them do this at higher speeds, because I worry something nasty will get in their eyes or up their little nose-holes.
[mom voice]Leave the damn dog ALONE![/mom voice]
I’ve spoken extensively with Ren on this subject and, amongst all the abuse and foul language, he advised me that he loves to catch bugs in and on his teeth. The car fumes make him feel invigorated.
I’ve since tried to replicate this experience for my buddy. I spray lighter fuel into the path of a hair dryer and throw raisins at his head. He seems to like this… for a while at least.
I think you probably talked to Angry Ren. Apathy Ren would have said something along the lines of “Oh, who cares?” or “Big deal!”. So be careful-- whatever that Ren told you was probably just sarcasm.
I was sure Cecil had covered this one, so I went to the archives. And came up empty. But then I went to google and found the following:
at Dribbleglass.com Trivia: “Dogs put their heads out of car windows out of visual curiosity. (They like a cool breeze, too.) But blowing in a dog’s ear is another matter. It can be painful because of the sound of the blowing–the frequency drives them nuts.”
I can’t vouch for the veracity of that site, but it sounds reasonable.
It could be that the dog perceives a threat when you blow in its face. When you blow, your facial expression may puzzle the dog, in addition to the unexpected sound, and the blast of warm air. Just a WAG.
On a somewhat unrelated note. Beware of letting your dogs hang out the window. This may be stupid (most things I do are) but my dog fell out the car window!!!
When she was a puppy she was standing on my girlfriends lap with her head out the window. Being a rambuncious dog she decided to learn just a little farther out the window and out she went! Luckily we were pulling into a driveway when it happened and she was fine. I think she actually had fun!!!
Im not sure of this happens often but I thought I should give a heads up.
Dogs like to stick their heads out the window because of the smells. We’re all aware of how sensitive the dog’s olfactory organs are. It should be no surprise that much like men like the visual stimulus of the female form, dogs like the olfactory stimulus of so many different smells going by.