Sniff Walks – Do you take them?

My ladies love them: the sniff walks that I regularly undertake with each of them individually. In this blog I explain to you exactly what such a sniff walk is, and why it is a good idea to do this regularly with your dog.

Going on sniff walks

Like most of us owners, our dogs love control and predictability. And to ensure that control and predictability, we need to collect information about the world around us. Just think: what is the first thing you do when you get out of your car in a new location? Look around to see what’s there in that location, right? We mainly use our eyes for this, because that’s our preferred sense and for us it works the fastest to collect information. Our dogs use their eyes too, of course, but collect much more information with their noses. All odors are sniffed and processed in the dog’s brain, and we can only guess what exactly happens there. Research has shown that dogs that have been given the chance to sniff their surroundings at their own pace, relax more easily and quickly.

During sniffing, endorphins are released, which helps to reduce stress. Dopamine is also released, and that creates a happy and nice feeling. So it’s not surprising that dogs love to sniff!

How do you approach such a walk?

So, how do we translate that into everyday life? By letting the dog sniff regularly in his own environment, for example! And a sniff walk is ideal. During such a walk, your dog determines where and when he stops to sniff, and how long he stays there to sniff. In addition, your dog determines the route of the walk (as long as it is safe of course!). You walk behind him, preferably with your dog on a long leash, and simply wait as long as the dog is standing still. You only intervene if the situation threatens to become unsafe, otherwise the dog has full control over the walk. What this does is give your dog the opportunity to go to exactly those places where he would like to sniff, and thus properly map his own environment. Because a sniff walk is preferably done in your own neighborhood or town.

Start at the front door

When I take sniff walks with my girls, they start at the front door. To begin with, they get a collar (or harness) on which I only use for sniff walks. You don’t necessarily have to do this, I like to mark the difference between a sniffing walk and an ‘ordinary’ walk. I use a biothane long line of 5 meters.

Then we step outside, and I hand over control to the dog. She decides which way we go, and how long the walk takes us. This sometimes results in very surprising things, especially if you have several dogs! For example, Juno prefers to go through our entire village during a sniff walk, and we can spend an hour and a half with her. Freyja, on the other hand, walks practically the same way as when we ‘normally’ walk her. Apparently she finds that interesting enough, and her mother has more need to sniff outside the standard route 🙂 Skadi walks a different route every time, and is in time between her sister Freyja and her mother Juno. Idunn and Herja are the youngest of the bunch, and are somewhere between Freyja and Skadi in length and distance. Sometimes they walk a new route, and sometimes the same one. I just follow them and enjoy the fact that they are enjoying themselves, and the environment around us.

Do you ever go for a sniff walk? Or maybe you want to try it out? Share your findings with me, I’d like that!