When my dog is dry, she doesn’t really have a particular smell. But if she’s been out in the rain and comes inside, she smells just awful. This awful smell will usually be gone by the next morning, when she’s had time to dry. Why is this?
A hush fell over the courtroom, killing six.
i would assume your dog’s coat of hair smells’s bad because of what lies in the hair. various parasites and the like. try washing the dog.
Certain breeds are more smelly than others. It has a lot to do with the oils in the dog’s skin. She could have rolled on the ground outside and picked up a lot of soil in her fur.
Pet catalogs offer “Doggy deodorant” and deodorizing shampoos. I would speak to my vet if the dog’s smell has gotten noticibly worse: she could have a bacterial infection of some kind.
Awful? Awful? I like wet doggy smell so much I hose my dog down before I let him in the house. No, really.
This won’t answer the OP, but it may provide a clue. Back when I lived in the Mojave desert, I remember that whenever it rained the entire place would smell like a wet dog. Weird and yucky.
A point in every direction is like no point at all
This is a little strange. My first thoughts were that the water mobilises certain odourants which were previously ‘trapped’, but thinking a little further about it this, this makes no sense, because if the offending substance dissolves, it stands to reason that its interaction with water molecules is stronger than its original interactions (otherwise it wouldn’t dissolve). So there doesn’t seem to be a simple physical reason.
Possibly there’s a chemical reason, some sort of hydrolysis taking place to release the odour, but this doesn’t seem very likely either. I’m stumped, and open the floor to the smart people.
Dogs smell funny when they’re wet. It’s a fact of nature 
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Mine doesn’t. I don’t know why. I give her a bath about once a month, and I’ve never noticed that wet-dog smell on her. Not that I’m complaining . . .
Ooh, ooh, just thought of another possibility, maybe when the dog’s wet, hair that is normally relatively cool becomes warm (air poorer conductor of heat than water) and in this way odourants become more volatile. Maybe.
Hmmm…Interesting question. Yes, it is a fact of life that wet dogs smell like wet dogs…but why?
My dog, who usually does not smell at all, gets a faint wet-dog smell whenever he is wet, whether he is wet from a bath, or wet from playing in the creek. (sometimes he picks up other bad smells from playing outside, but that is not what I am talking about)
I would really like to know the answer to this, too.
And just for the record, I, too, like the wet-dog smell.
I think the answer is right under our noses!!
dogs fur is coated in oils ( gives that lovely coat) and when they get wet the water gets under the oils, bringing them to the surface, and the lovely odor…
this same thing can be observed with wet wool socks, neoprene, or anything else that might have mild smells and oils on them dry!
or I could just have a severe case of male answer syndrome…
Welcome Overengineer. Remember, this board (and particularly GQ) IS a severe case of male answer syndrome.
Well, it’s funny you should ask this question today, because just this afternoon I caught one of my dogs doing something that explains why she stinks when she’s wet (and dry, too).
She had dug up a mole and killed it, from the looks of it, some time ago. Dunno where she had been keeping the mole body, but she was dragging it around, tossing it up in the air, and rolling around on it. This is apparently one of her most funnest, favorite things to do.
We had noticed that she smells worse than the other dogs, especially when wet. Why being wet causes the smell to be worse, I don’t know, but it is so.
I have often thought of this and I have a serious suspicion that the smell is caused by fungus and that explains that it is much more intense in heat and humidity.
Fungy emit very specific odors under warm and moist conditions. Think of toenail fungus or different kinds of skin fungus. I have had several skin fungus infection and I can tell when they recur by the smell when I sweat even if it is in my back where I cannot see it. Horses also have very specific smell when they sweat and it could be for this reason.
The main reason I think it is a fungus rather than some inert matter is this: When I boought my house, I inherited a rug from the previous owners which had a distinct dog odor. I have never had any pets. I hate this smell which gets to be very strong in the hot and humid summer days. I have washed this rug with bleach trying to kill everything it may have and disinfect it. For a while the smell disappears but it slowly comes back in the humid summer days. That is why I am thinking it is a fungus that reproduces.
If I put some antifungal powder on the rug, like that for athlete’s foot, the smell will go away.
Try some antifungal product on your dog and see if the smell goes away…
My grandmother told me that it was sulpher that caused that smell. Is that true, and if so, how did my dog get sulpher on herself?
A hush fell over the courtroom, killing six.
My poodle (Kiss) smells like her last shampoo, wet, damp or dry. If she smells like anything other than that she needs another bath.
My sheltie (Darwin) barely keeps the same shampoo smell for more than a few days.
Kiss’s crate needs to be wiped out–sand dirt, leaves.
Darwin’s crate needs a scrape out with a grease cutting liquid dish detergent. Oils from his fur coat the inside of the crate.
Kiss will shake off rain and her fur dries to a “bed-head” look, she might be wet right down to her skin.
Darwin will shake off rain, wipe his flanks off on an overstuffed chair with a nubby fabric.* A couple of chair wipes, another good shake and every hair is back in place. His skin doesn’t get wet.
*This has to be a very basic inbred or “mama dog” taught skill because if denied an overstuffed chair, he’ll use a glass patio door and seem just as satisfied with the final effect.
So, I think the doggie smell has to do with the doggie skin or fur oils that act as waterproofing and grooming oil. He looks perfectly groomed all the time. I’m sure he thinks so, too.
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
Maybe what you smell is the dog’s natural odor, which may be intensified by the moisture. Kind of like humans smell after a brisk workout. No doubt to another dog, that smell is as individual as faces are to humans. And of course, since our sense of smell is pretty weak compared to a dog’s, all wet dogs smell alike.
Unwashed human hair, when wet, stinks too.
What does intensified by moisture mean? Greater secretions because of water?
After a workout, humans smell due to sweat and it’s component (and, of course, the action of bacteria on the sweat).
Doggie fur is no different, in this respect than diapers. When the animal wets it, it smells like, well, urine. The oder is most keen when the nose of smellER is closest to the smellEE. Keep smellee (dog) away 'till cleaned with soap and water.