I have a 1 y.o toypoo, spayed. I rarely took her out walking since it was very difficult to walk her. She’s excessively sniffs to the point she’s not walking but just sniffing. She’s also very scared to other dogs and hates bath + grooming time.
We socialized her, took her on playdates with our cousins’ dog. Yet she never outgrew this habit. Thankfully we have big back yard for her to unleash her energy. But just curious with her excessive sniffing since my previous dog loves walking, fearless, loves grooming.
Sniffing a lot, disliking baths/grooming – that sounds like normal dog behavior to me! You probably will need to train your dog to find these activities more rewarding. Dogs get a lot of enjoyment from smells so your dog is probably having a grand time picking up all the unfamiliar scents.
Hahahhaa yeah! But so different in comparison to my last dog. My last dog was so in love with bath time!
How often do you take her out for walks? And how much/long does she actually sniffs? Sniffing and discovering smells is very stimulating for dogs. Dogs discover a lot of the world through their nose.
How does she react to other dogs? Bark/growl/lunge etc? What do you do before, during and after seeing/meeting other dogs on walks?
I would need a bit more info before answering with tips and tricks for you.
Sniffing is everything for dogs. It’s their social media to know what happens in neighbourhood. How other dogs are doing, or what other animals have wondered the same route.
Sniffing is just something all dogs, puppies to adult dogs, do to get the lay of the land, mark their regular routes in the neighborhood, and sniff out familiar scents from other dogs marking those spots. Scent sniffing also helps them understand if something, or some new dog, is in their area.
Dogs need to sniff. It’s the primary way they experience the world around them and make sense of everything.
They have 50 times as many scent receptors in their noses as humans, and they even have an additional organ above the roof of their mouths called the vemoronasal organ that helps trap scents.
So asking a dog to go on a walk without sniffing is like asking a human to go for a walk without looking at anything except for what is exactly in front of them. That might be good exercise, but it would be pretty boring, right?