I know individuals vary all over the place, and since I’ll be looking at shelter mutts anyway trying to tell what breed characteristics express themselves is kind of a crap shoot, but is it fair to say that “dog reek” is more common in certain breeds? For example, I’ve never met a Basset hound that smelled good. (I’m sure they smell well, but they sure don’t smell good.) Are there certain groups of dogs with similar smell characteristics? I’ve only had Westies, and they just smell like regular dogs - no real smell when clean, doggy smell if they haven’t had a bath in three months.
Hey Zsofia
I forwarded your question to my SO who is the head honchette with our Humane Society. Let’s see what she says.
Meanwhile, what do the rest of our ** Doper** dog-owner buddies think?
Maybe the smaller the breed the less the smell?
Depends on what you feed’ em?
And they all smell bad when they get wet outside!
Good question!
Quasi
I’ve known many people with dogs, and invariably the stinky ones were the ones that were regularly bathed. Could dogs really be smellier by breed? Interesting.
I can say from personal experience that dogs with oily coats ( i.e. some water dogs ) will start to stink to high heaven if you let them “go rancid.” I had a Chesapeake Bay Retriever as a teen and he needed a dip in the ocean at least once a week.
I don’t think so. My Rat Terrier seemed to get smelly faster than my Collie did. (This was true when both were alive and lived in the same house, and bathed at the same frequency.)
It seems to me the short-haired breeds have more oily coat/skin and tend to smell worse.
Not precisely what you asked for, but be aware that many mastiffs, such as St. Bernards, have the ability to projectile drool. A friend of mine had a St. Bernard who covered the walls of his house up to about 7 feet high with doggy drool. If you’re concerned about odor, I’m guessing that would also be an issue for you.
Malemutes smell like the wrath o’god if you don’t keep them clean, especially in winter, especially if they’re outdoor dogs. It’s all that incredibly thick fur, just traps the stank like you wouldn’t believe!
Of our two current dogs, the shorter haired lab/husky mix is less smelly than the longer, curly coated border collie cross with the kinda oily fur. The lab sheds water easier too, just comes right off him with a swipe of a towel. The other one needs to towelled off whenever he comes in out of the rain. Hence, longer haired dog = more wet dog stink. They both need baths at the moment…
A lot of it is what you feed them. When we switched from kibble to homeade dog food, the doggy smell went away pretty much entirely. Now we bathe them when they’re dirty, not stinky. But I think breed matters, too. The weimaraners we used to have got quite smelly (they smelled like doritos) after a week without a bath. Any breed that has skin folds (pugs, bulldogs, basset hounds, etc) can develop bacterial issues with the skin folds that cause odor. Also breeds with ear problems, like cocker spaniels. Ear infections reek.
I don’t recall our Basenji having much if any odor. Our current dog, some kind of chihuahua / terrier mix leaves a residual smell in the spots where she spends a lot of time, but doesn’t have much smell on her body most of the time.
Any of your hound breeds are going to reek. Bassetts, coon hounds, beagles, the lot of them. Stank-o-rama. It’s the oil in their coats, which is a trait you’ll find in a lot of other breeds that were originally water hunters like labs and spaniels. Also, oilier-coated dogs will leave marks on parts of your walls/door trim they rub against regularly if you don’t keep 'em pretty damn clean. These wash off pretty easily unless you have textured walls, in which case you’ll need a scrub brush and some elbow grease.
All breeds have their good points and their bad points. Pugs, for instance, tend not to smell or shed that much, but they’re prone to joint issues, airway compromise, and their eyeballs falling out. Also, they fart. A lot. Dachshunds don’t smell or shed or lose their eyeballs, but they’re prone to back problems and they tend to be really dominant, which can turn into aggression if not dealt with properly. Labs keep their eyes and are smart and friendly, but they tend to smell a bit and shed and are prone to ear infections if you don’t keep the ears cleaned out.
Personally, I’d rather deal with the bathing and ear cleaning needed for a lab than the wheezing and farting that comes with a pug, but we all draw the line in different places.
Don’t know if this helps, but both border collies I have had have both had a lovely smell about them. I swear their heads had a sort of perfume smell to them.
The retriever-collie cross that we have, though, inherited her coat from the retriever side, and gets progressively more smelly and oily the longer you leave her between baths.
You can guess which one gets to cuddle more. Poor stinky thing.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that labs often have that “wipe your hand on your pants” after you pet them going on.
And yes, aerial drool would certainly affect my adoption decision. I think that would be kind of obvious, though, while grooming at the shelter might be hit or miss.
Eskies are amazingly easy to keep clean and have hardly any smell issues.
CCL - I don’t know - I had an Afghan hound and he didn’t smell, despite that long coat.
My dobies don’t tend to smell much, nor my standard poodle. The malamute is smelly, though. The English setter isn’t too bad, but in part that’s because he’s lazy and doesn’t go out as much as the other dogs. The newest dog, sort of a mini-wolfhound (60 lbs) doesn’t smell yet, but she’s been bathed pretty recently.
StG
Short-coated, non-swimming dogs would be my recommendation.
Also, you can sniff-test the shelter dogs you meet and form your own opinion, to some degree.
Mine is virtually odorless regardless of how long he goes without a bath. His brother, who we had for a while as a puppy, was equally unsmelly. OTOH, he’s an inside dog.
I have never met a Husky that had a “doggy” smell. The breed seems immune to that problem (possibly lacking the skin oils or something). They will, however, pick up external odors due to their thick fur.
My Greyhound only has a minimal odor which will disappear for a week or so after she is bathed. If she was washed regularly, it probably would never be noticed.
It’s very weird, but I have a basenji mix that does not smell “doggy” at all. He is the nicest smelling animal I’ve ever smelled, he literally always naturally smells like he’s just been dryer-tumbled. Even when wet from the rain, he doesn’t smell like “wet dog” either.
Maybe its what I feed them, Bill-Jac, but my dogs hardly ever smell badly. Of course every now and then they roll around on a dead lizard and make themselves stinky, but by and large they are very clean and keep themselves that way for the most part. They get a really good bath once a month.
Oh yeah, 7 Jack russels.
Cherish that critter, Really. I miss mine so much.