06/03/2022
It’s been a while since I sat and rambled, and as I have a bit of time on my hands now all the post-Eunice repairs to gates and fences have been done, I thought I’d have a little go.
One of the good things to come out of the Covid years as I shall refer to them from now on is that folk have started to reference their own mental health openly. When I was in my teenage years I did voluntary work with St Johns Ambulance Brigade as I was a caring sort, and as well as learning how to immobilise someone with a suspected fracture of the femur using just triangular bandages and the casualties walking stick, one of the other memorable activities was working with people who had MH issues. Real Mental Health issues. The key factor that has stuck with me for all these years is that these issues were never spoken about openly, and they were often discussed only in hushed tones as ‘special’.
Only recently have we openly accepted that ‘stress’ affects our mental well-being, but to deal with stress properly we need to understand it, and humans are quite poor at doing this for themselves. and therefore, it's not at all unusual that we are very poor at recognising what causes stress for our dogs. However, with a little insight and observation we can hopefully alleviate, and if that’s not possible mitigate some of the effects.
I’m not going to list the common causes of stress, but how about some off the wall situations;
Watching a squirrel (insert favourite prey) through a closed window.
Kong’s that don’t give up their contents without a fight.
Walks on busy roads.
Being trapped/held/managed harshly on a short lead.
Dad/Mum shouting at sports on tv.
All quietly building up huge stress in your dog, until the trigger goes. Stress hormones continue building way beyond the event that caused them, they can also take several (think three) days to subside. So imagine that over the last couple of days old Fido has woofed at a squizzer though the window, been given a treat with a Kong stuffed with frozen pate, watched a couple of games of Rugby with dad and ‘The Singer Thing’ with Mum. Dad decides to take him to the pub for a pint and a bag of scratchings, walks him along a bit of a whizzy road only to find the local rugby boys are in there, but never mind pull him a bit closer on his lead. BOOM, meltdown.
All those little signs easily missed and individually well-handled by your pup, but the cumulative effect is catastrophic.
We need a fix, something that is quick, easy and readily accessible no matter where you are, and it’s right in front of your nose. Well, not exactly your nose as that doesn’t work so well, but Fido’s nose now that’s a different matter.
Dogs can smell 10,00 to 100,000 times better than us. They can detect some scents in parts per trillion. In numbers, that means they can notice 1 particle in 1,000,000,000,000 other particles. One in a trillion parts is half a cube of sugar in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
But sniffing is not just our dog’s greatest talent. It also is one of their most universally enjoyed past-times.
We don’t need to train or encourage our dogs to sniff. Puppies do it as soon as they can walk, and old dogs still do it when they barely can do anything else anymore. It is as natural as walking.
Dogs rarely get tired of sniffing. They enjoy it every day, multiple times a day. The constant stream of information (again, hard to appreciate for us with our sub-par noses!) keeps them interested infinitely.
Sniffing is used as a calming signal between dogs. Two friendly dogs that meet each other may signal their wish to not escalate the situation by spontaneous sniffing. A dog that feels uncomfortable in a training situation may turn away to sniff the ground, much to the dismay of the owner.
Dogs do not just communicate to each other that they are peaceful by sniffing, but also calm themselves down through it. A dog that feels nervous may often suddenly be extremely interested in the ground in front of him. It is an inbuilt mechanism to relax.
A few minutes of sniffing will lower your dog’s heart rate. It is the canine equivalent of deep breathing. Whatever temperament your dog has, all dogs benefit from being allowed to sniff.
If your dog’s typical response is bull at a gate stuff, as we’ve all experienced with vizslas, then if your dog’s nose is on the ground he cannot bounce around at the same time. The wild ones often rush into situation and try to solve every problem by being fast, loud and powerful. They have learned that in order to get what they want; they should give it their all – meaning going hard and strong. This does not work for sniffing. It focuses your dog mentally and quietens him physically. He cannot wing things by going crazy and 100mph. He can only gain information from sniffing if he is slow, collected and concentrated.
For those we would class as anxious, or who may try to bolt away from situations. Sniffing may help them to feel more confident about their environment. Allowing nervous dogs to sniff on their walks seems to relax them, especially over time. If you consistently walk along the same paths where the dog can sniff all he wants, he will feel more and more comfortable and in control. Fearful dogs feel uncertainty and the more novel or unknown a situation is, the less confident they will be. By allowing them to get to know their surroundings through sniffing you will let them build up confidence and a sense of security. Fearful or reactive pups can walk the same paths every day with free-range sniffing. Then, once they are happy and no longer nervous, a slight variation can be built into the walk each day, expanding the area they feel comfortable with and retaining that confidence.
Puppies sniff so much because they are exploring the world to a big part through their nose. Just like human children they are constantly experimenting, building new experiences and forming their knowledge about the world. Already young puppies will be interested in sniffing the spots at which other dogs have peed for example – even though they do not mark yet themselves. Most puppies stop sniffing once they enter doggy adolescence at around 5-10 months of age. When they are teenagers, they often prefer to run and “be wild” rather than sniffing calmly. Once they reach their adult stage however, they usually return to sniffing extensively.
How can we use this to help our pups and take some of their stress away, try a sniff walk, keep a lead on, but loosely handled and walk along a route that many other dogs may have used, so plenty of wee-mails to check, if possible avoid routes with heavy traffic. Pick your moment well, make sure you have sufficient time and the weather is comfortable for you both so that you can take your time and chill out too (it helps you both). Observe your dog and engage with what they are doing. Some people stick in ear buds and listen to a podcast or music when walking, I prefer to use all my senses on the task at hand, but it’s your choice.
I personally really enjoy these walks, don’t rush move at the dog’s pace and if you only cover 100 metres in an hour it doesn’t matter, the dog will be mentally tired from processing all that info and will curl up content at home. These are the absolute opposite from the full-on pack walks that they love, but just as satisfying.
Let your dog sniff. Unless it happens during training it is not an expression of lacking interest in you. Dogs sense of smell is incredibly advanced, and they gain a large amount of information via sniffing. Sniffing is calming and your dog will feel good after a long sniff walk – and they are relaxing for us humans as well.
Vid is obviously going to be dogs sniffing, enjoy the music.
