dogdaze

Have you noticed that dogs love to roll in stinky stuff like animal feces or even the carcass of dead animals?

I have a tiny Chihuahua that does this almost every day. She comes back in the house smelling almost as bad as a skunk and is very proud of herself because she jumps right in my lap and tries to kiss me — as if I would kiss her right then!

What I do instead is grab her stinky little body and put her in a bath with nice smelling dog shampoo. She seems almost disappointed that I’ve spoiled her unique smell.

I don’t really know why dogs roll in smelly stuff, other than perhaps they instinctively are trying to disguise their own scent to throw off other animals or predators.

Megan Parker, a research biologist at the Wolf Education and Research Center in Seattle, says the ancestors of dogs, the wolves, regularly roll in carrion, the decaying flesh of dead animals. She’s not sure if the reason they do this is to disguise their scent because dogs and wolves have plenty of scent glands.

According to Parker, dogs may simply do this so they can carry the scent back to their pack, letting them know that they’ve discovered something interesting. It also could be that dogs are marking the carrion with their own scent to let other dogs know that this discovery “is mine.”

Whatever the reason, dogs will be dogs and they’ll continue to roll in poop or carrion. All we can do as their best friend and parent is to love them… and bathe them!

Dogs need baths just like we do, only not as often.

Forest, my sister’s dog, actually likes baths. He’s been getting them since he was a puppy. He even has his own bath towel and rubber duck!