Dog sniffing

[blahedo]

When two dogs meet each other, they try to sniff each others’ butts. The sniffee is not always very pleased by this, and sometimes will snap at the sniffer, before turning around and trying to sniff them back. What’s more, many dogs will also try to sniff at human crotches, usually to the embarrassment of their owner.

What I’d like to know is, what are they learning here? What kind of evolutionary purpose does this serve? Are they trying to find out what kind of a mood the other one is in? How healthy they are? Why does the sniffee seem so annoyed about the whole thing?

[yabob]

I don’t think this explanation is scientifically accepted:

The dogs they had a party
And they came from near and far
And some dogs came by taxi
And others came by car

When the dogs they had a party
They signed their names in a little book
And each one hung his asshole
Upon a separate hook

One dog was not invited
And this filled him with ire
So he went into the party
And loudly shouted “FIRE”.

Well, the dogs ran in a panic,
And didn’t stop to look
But took just any asshole
From off of any hook

Now, it’s such a sad, sad story
For it makes you very sore
To wear another’s asshole
You’ve never worn before

So today when ere two dogs meet
On land or sea or foam
They sniff each other’s assholes
In hopes it is their own

To the tune of “The Church is our Foundation”. It was too much to resist.

[Reeder]

Because that’s what dogs do.

The dog that gets sniffed sometimes sees it as a sign of aggression. Hence the nip. But most of the time the sniff is accepted.

Look at it as a human handshake. Some people like it…some people don’t.

[Lissa]

The data they are collecting from other dogs is fertility (in females) and probably information on their health.

Dogs have scent glands near their anuses. (Sometimes, they get painfully impacted and have to be manually emptied. This is a major cause of “scooting.”) Thus, when dogs meet, they automatically go to the source-- the most strongly scented area. Remember, dogs don’t differentiate smells into good and bad. They don’t have any odor taboos like we do. To a dog, the stinkier, the better.

Those dogs which are habitual crotch-sniffers are generally dogs in which their height puts the human genitals in a convenient location-- right in front of their snouts. This area, not to be too blunt, is probably the most strongly scented place on a human, making it natural for them to seek it out. I’ sure they don’t understand our embarassment. They haven’t been conditioned to think of those places as tabooed.

I also doubt that the dog is necessarily seeking the crotch or ass, as in thinking, “Well, my ass is above my back legs, so on a human, it should be right about here.” Dogs most likely lack that mirror-image self kind of thinking.

[Washoe]

@Lissa

Dogs have scent glands near their anuses.

Are you sure that these are scent glands? My veterinarian told me that the anal glands are vestigial in nature, and serve no purpose.

[Lissa]

@Washoe

Are you sure that these are scent glands? My veterinarian told me that the anal glands are vestigial in nature, and serve no purpose.

Nope, they’re fully functional. You may occasionally see a dog secrete a droplet of fluid when it finishes defecating-- that’s from the anal glands. A dog which has soft stools is more likely to be victim to impacted glands. (You can empty them yourself, but I don’t recommend it. The stench is a very powerful one which tends to linger. Have your vet do it.) Dogs will sometimes scoot when the glands are impacted, or may suddenly jump like it’s been bitten and look back there in puzzlement.

Here’s a good page about them.

[gouda]

My vet has had to manually empty out my dog’s anal gland on quite a few occasions - I usually knew when to take him there when he stared chewing away at his butt-al area non-stop.

I don’t remember any bad smell though.