# Do dogs recognize Santa?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-recognize-santa/645452>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 29, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-recognize-santa/645452 "2012-12-29T02:52:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-recognize-santa/645452/1 "2012-12-29T02:52:21Z")

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This question pertains to those dogs who are visited each year by that all to familiar stranger from the North.  
Probably because they belong to a family with children and a father who just misses him because he was out looking.

I always figured dogs can tell who someone is more by smell then anything else.  
Yet most of them have a problem with Santa. who they should know like the man they carefully watch eating dinner every night.  
Then again, I find dogs get pretty excited if I do things like move furniture or walk with my arms straight up, waving back and forth.

Why wouldn’t they give even their owner the business for dressing in a big furry suit and going Ho-ho-ho?

Or do you think dogs really do believe in Santa Claus?

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**Author:** ![Rubixcube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Rubixcube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubixcube)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-dogs-recognize-santa/645452/2 "2012-12-29T03:02:02Z")

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No experiences with Santa, but our dogs don’t take kindly to odd stuff attached to us. They start barking if they see us wearing strange clothing, hats more elaborate than a baseball cap, things that cover our faces, or are carrying large objects. Seeing as how dressing up as Santa likely involves all four I can’t imagine they’d take it well.

Now they _do_ recognize us by scent. But you’d have to sufficiently calm them to get them to approach you and start sniffing first. And even then they’re likely to be a bit jumpy for a while.