Why Do Dogs Sniff Each Other?

As we know, smell is the most developed sense in dogs. When we see dogs sniffing each other, what they do is receive a lot of information about the other animal. They know everything from what the other eats to their gender or emotional state.

Dogs sniff each other for chemical messages

It would be a kind of information source through chemistry. This would be one of many examples of chemical communication in the animal kingdom.

When dogs sniff each other, they activate an auxiliary olfactory system called the Jacobson organ or vomeronasal organ. This organ is very capable of chemical communication. Your own nerves communicate directly with your brain.

Where does the information come from

Dogs sniff each other out and receive a lot of information. Where does she come from? On each side of our pets’ anus are pouches called anal sacs, which excrete the chemicals that pets use to obtain information.

The main responsible for transmitting all this data when dogs sniff each other out is the apocrine sweat gland. In addition to it, the sebaceous gland plays an important role in this process.

Also, it turns out that  as a dog grows, the anal glands can cause problems. Often, fecal material enters these glands and can end up being uncomfortable and even painful for the pet. If we notice that the animal drags its anus on the floor or that it tries to look at it too much, it is time to look for the vet so that he can clean these glands.

It must be known that our dogs sniff out the anal sac secretions of others of his species, and thereby obtain accurate data. But we must also take into account that genetics, diet and the immune system produce chemical changes that cause the odor to change.

The moment of the tour and social interaction

When we take our dog for a walk and he meets another, he starts the ritual : a fearful approach, tail movement or alert attitude, and then they sniff each other’s hindquarters. For those who have never had a pet, this behavior borders on depravity and weirdness.

This behavior, which happens when dogs sniff each other, is natural and everyday. We shouldn’t repress our pet for this, but let’s also try to understand why it happens.

Although this makes us uncomfortable, it is good that we let our pet sniff other dogs for a few seconds, so that it can develop its chemical communication at will.

smell and memory

From the moment they are born blind and deaf, puppies already use their sense of smell, among other things, to find their mother’s teats, sniffing them so they can feed.

By the time they are grown into adults, dogs have between 150 and 300 million odor-receptor cells. If we compare it with the 5 million cells that we humans have, we will see the difference in the olfactory aspect.

For all these reasons, dogs are used as rescue dogs, for detecting explosives, for tracking drugs, or even for detecting diseases in humans.

In addition, the sense of smell plays a very important role in dogs’ reproduction. That way, when females are in heat, their glands give off certain pheromones so the males know they’re receptive to mating.

the olfactory memory

In addition to having such a developed sense of smell, dogs also have a very effective olfactory memory . They are able to remember the scent of other pets, even when they haven’t seen each other for years.

To have an idea of ​​the distance that their sense of smell reaches, in the case of dogs, it can reach 150 cm², while the area of ​​humans is 5 cm². As we see, our pets will always use odors to recognize and remember us and other animals.

The sociability of each dog

The ease of this exchange of information will depend on the degree of sociability of a dog, as it is he who allows or not the other dog to sniff him, and to what extent. The more sociable dogs will lift their tails to facilitate this performance, while the less sociable ones will keep their tail down to save the performances for another time.

Some dogs that are born tailless or mutilated cannot communicate or be introduced. In some of these cases, fights and disagreements arise between them.