# What do dogs like to smell? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 13, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150 "2014-12-13T19:08:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/1 "2014-12-13T19:08:01Z")
I know they like to smell scents of dogs, cats, squirrels, etc. Anything else? Sometimes my dog really gets into something and I wonder if it’s some kind of plant smell he likes rather than animal scent. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/2 "2014-12-13T19:30:32Z")
My boy Dane wants to be a urologist when he grows up. It’s really, really annoying and I haven’t been able to break the habit in 7 years. I assume he’s getting some pleasure from snorfing the front of my jeans (when I’m lucky). ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/3 "2014-12-13T19:43:22Z")
A dogs sense of smell is vastly more capable than the human one is. It plays such a big sensory role that an equivalent question from dog to human might be “What do you like to look at, and why?” ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/4 "2014-12-13T19:47:23Z")
Not only do they smell the scent of other animals, but for other dogs they like to smell their butts. It’s like a standard greeting or something, like a handshake. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/5 "2014-12-13T19:49:33Z")
I think I was at that bar. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/6 "2014-12-13T19:51:55Z")
Maybe I should try it. My pickup lines never worked anyway. Wait a minute, I’m married… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/7 "2014-12-13T20:11:20Z")
Barbecued chicken and steak are high on their list too. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/8 "2014-12-13T20:22:59Z")
I have a diabetic friend who gets potentially dangerous sores on the soles of her feet, but because of her neuropathy she doesn’t feel them. One of her dogs will alert her if she starts developing a sore. Dogs have such a powerful sense of smell, I think when they’re sniffing grass they are picking up the scent of animals that have walked that way, or peed there. I did tracking classes with a previous dog. It’s quite amazing watching a well-trained dog track an hours-old scent over multiple surfaces. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/9 "2014-12-13T20:35:16Z")
I don’t have much good to say about snow–it is pretty, I guess–but one of the good things is when I walk my dog I can kinda see what he’s sniffing, because with snow there are tracks. Tracks of other dogs, tracks of bunnies, things like that. If he’s sniffing a bush, it usually seems to me that he’s checking for if other dogs have peed on that bush. Kinda like a dog message board. Then he makes his own post and goes back to sniff again, like “Did I pee there? Hmm. Yes, yes I did.” ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/10 "2014-12-13T21:09:08Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > If he’s sniffing a bush, it usually seems to me that he’s checking for if other dogs have peed on that bush. Kinda like a dog message board. Then he makes his own post and goes back to sniff again, like “Did I pee there? Hmm. Yes, yes I did.” That’s called pee-mail. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/11 "2014-12-13T21:17:29Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Not only do they smell the scent of other animals, but for other dogs they like to smell their butts. It’s like a standard greeting or something, like a handshake. E-tail. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/12 "2014-12-13T21:26:15Z")
I have an 11-year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever and she loves Loves _ **LOVES** _ to fetch a solid rubber ball. Well she loves to swim too, but this is about sniffing… Her eyesight has never been great and she uses her nose to find the ball. She’s very athletic and in her younger years a tennis ball wouldn’t fly and bounce far enough (I’m using a Chuck-It). I’ve been using a solid rubber ball that flies and bounces much farther than a tennis ball. It’s often 100-200 yards, and sometimes farther depending on the sloping ground. Watching her work, finding the ball if it’s ended up in a bush or otherwise out of sight, she uses her nose and I’m convinced that each time the ball bounces or rubs against something it leaves particles that she can smell. I can almost picture the particles falling off the ball as it bounces. I’m amazed at the places she’s been able to find that ball. If she’s lost the ball she starts circling with her nose to the ground, trying to pick up that scent. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/13 "2014-12-13T21:29:11Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > If he’s sniffing a bush, it usually seems to me that he’s checking for if other dogs have peed on that bush. Kinda like a dog message board. Fighting ignorance, doggy-style. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/14 "2014-12-13T21:40:00Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > If he’s sniffing a bush, it usually seems to me that he’s checking for if other dogs have peed on that bush. Kinda like a dog message board. Then he makes his own post and goes back to sniff again, like “Did I pee there? Hmm. Yes, yes I did.” > [@chiroptera](#): > > That’s called pee-mail. 😃 Compare [this: “7 Amazing Facts About Your Dog’s Sense of Smell” > [@](#): > > **5. Dogs send “pee-mail”** > > I love this description of dog communiques from Coren: “Dogs read about the world through their noses, and they write their messages, at least to other dogs, in their urine." It’s tempting to drag your dog along on a walk when he’s sniffing everything annoyingly slowly, but give him chance to read the neighborhood gossip column, and let him do a little writing while he’s at it. ]([12 Vet-Approved Facts About Your Dog’s Sense of Smell – Dogster](http://www.dogster.com/lifestyle/dog-facts-sense-of-smell)) ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/15 "2014-12-13T21:41:02Z")
The acuity of a dog’s sense of smell is astonishing. I read somewhere that it it were sight, which of course it’s not, it’s equivalent to you seeing a highway sign 1/3 of a mile ahead…and a dog “seeing” it 3,000 miles ahead. It’s not only sensitive in the parts-per-million range: unlike sight, smell enables dogs to sense when and what order events occur in time. Dogs have been tested to be able to distinguish which direction a person walked through a room, by smelling which part of the trail is fresher–and able to make that distinction within as few as three footprints. A large part of a dog’s brain is dedicated to interpreting scent. Their sensory world must be very different from ours. I wonder if they pity us for our scentblindness. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/16 "2014-12-13T23:32:37Z")
dogs like the smell of rotten meat or something close to it. ---
**Author:** ![Whatever4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@Whatever4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whatever4)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-dogs-like-to-smell/707150/17 "2014-12-13T23:40:37Z")
Reminds me of a cartoon: Rakish looking dog sniffing a lamp post. “Well, Sadie’s back from Florida.” I’m easily amused.