Thanks to Cecil, we all know what causes the new car smell. What I want to know is what causes the wet dog smell? Every dog I have ever met, city or country, has that same smell. You know the smell. Even if the dog has just been given a bath, and then goes out into the rain, you can smell that smell. So, what is it?
Lanolin.
Unless you use hot water in the bath, it doesn’t go away.
Dog.
I’ve heard that it was lanolin as well.
We used to have a Siberian Husky who brought new meaning to the term “wet dog smell.” She always smelled as if she’d been swimming in the sewer when she got wet. I’m told that it was due to the higher concentration of lanolin in her coat, which is common to the northern breeds.
I know what you mean. I have an Alaskan Malamute. What exactly is lanolin? An oil?
It’s the stuff you get from sheep’s wool that is used as an emollient in many hand creams/moisturisers. It’s very effective, but a lot of people are allergic to it.
It doesn’t smell like wet dog though. It smells like sheep. Maybe dogs have a different kind.
My dog doesn’t smell like a traditional wet dog when you bathe her, but then again she’s a single coat breed. I’ve noticed that the double coat breeds tend to smell like wet dog more than the single coaters.
I would assume a single-coat dog is a dog that does not have an undercoat to shed, correct? I have a Miniature Schnauzer, and believe me, he has the same wet dog smell as bad as the Yellow Lab I grew up with. The only real difference here may be surface area of dog! A big dog has more surface to wet, more surface from which to generate the smell, and more fur taking longer to dry. (This could uphold Elmwood’s two-coat vs. one-coat dog theory.)
If it’s lanolin, that is hard to believe. I’m confused, though. Is Istara saying the lanolin in hand lotions comes from sheep? - Jinx
Yes, the lanolin in hand lotions, etc., comes from sheep wool.
Rain, usually.
It could be that lanolin is holding the substance that has the scent as opposed to being the scent itself.
Just a WAG.