Both of my dogs love to rub their whole bodies against random smelly scents. At least it seems random to me. Why do they do it? The explanation that I've always been given was that dogs are trying to hide their own scent. But is that the real answer?
Slate reports something different. I thought their explanation was pretty compelling, and certainly much more convincing than "hiding their own scent". What do you think?
9 comments:
i've never done it. my humans wonder why... maybe i just don't like the attention it may bring to me. humph.
I always thought my inus rolled in worm poo because they liked it, and wanted to keep it with them.
But the rollee (most of the time buckley or tsuki) do get more attention from the others because of their newly acquired scent.
The slate article was fascinating! Thanks for linking to it.
Well at least now I know that it's normal that Akira eats cow shit but loves to roll in Chanel N°5 ;)
Interesting article. I usually catch his articles on SciAm. Thanks!
Maybe it's the same reason I eat chocolate - 'cause I like it. That simple.
Or maybe it just seems like a good idea at the time...kind of like an ex-boyfriend of mine.
I always heard it was a pack instinct. They can rub their fur on spots that've been marked by other animals/dogs and bring it back with them to tell the pack there's something nearby.
Sami and Miko both like to roll in disgusting things from slugs and worms to dead animals. Yuck! I started to do a little reading about the subject and everything I read lead to 2 reasons. The 1st reason why they might like to roll in something is because they like the scent and want to smell like that. Kind of like us wearing perfume. The most logical reason for a Shiba to do it was reason number 2. Dogs that hunt roll in things to disguise their scent to make it easier to sneak up on their prey. You should have seen Sami the day she discovered a fresh pile of deer poo in the yard. Before I could pull her away, she had big green stripes all over her body!
@Judy -- Well, the Slate article reports a different theory. It's the theory that AI2ista commented about. I highly recommend reading the article. Very interesting.
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