The first blog I wrote was 'The Importance of Sniffing on a Dog Walk' . Please check it out if you haven't seen it already. I've been inspired to write this further blog on sniffing because of information I've learned recently from an online talk 1 by Shay Kelly BSc (Canine Behaviour Consultant and author) and a webinar 2 by Katrien Lismont (International Pet Dog Behaviour Trainer). I knew that through their sniffing, dogs get interesting information about the other dogs that have passed that way – things like their age, health and so on. Generally interesting stuff for dogs. They also love investigating non-dog related stuff of course – things like discarded food wrappers for example! What I had never considered before Shay Kelly's talk is that dogs can smell the emotional state of other dogs 3 (and people). They can smell stress chemicals, for example. This will form part of the information dogs are assessing when they are out for a walk with us.
"Other Nations" is a quotation from a passage of writing by author Henry Beston, describing animals.