To sniff, or not to sniff? It's not really a question!

Quality or quantity in canine exercise?

It is something heard often, especially among people with some of the higher energy breeds: ‘We walk for hours and miles, but the dog never gets tired!’ Home from a several mile hike, the humans in the household are about ready for a drink and possibly a nap, but their canine companion is still doing the wall of death around the living room or contemplating eating the dining table. In desperation, the family up the miles and hours of walking but the problem never seems to get any better. In fact, their livewire pooch is even more full of beans than ever! The issue spirals onwards, turning into a vicious cycle.

We all know that dogs need exercise. It’s one of their central needs that humans must be able to fulfil to be good canine guardians. A dog that is not tired clearly needs more exercise. In many people’s minds, exercising dogs equals taking them for a walk. One of the first things we are told as children about dogs is that they need walks. This is true (although there are a number of dogs for whom walking is so fraught with difficulty and anxiety that to attempt a walk can be detrimental to the dog’s mental health) - every dog should, in an ideal world, have at least one walk a day.

What should the walk consist of, to be considered a ‘good’ walk? Is it decided by the surroundings in which the walk takes place? Is it the length of the walk – the idea that more must always be better? Or is it the contents of the walk?

Picture for a moment the walk that some dogs get. Their lead is clipped on and out of the door they go, on a route march for miles around the streets without looking to either side, with maybe enough time allowed here and there for a quick toilet stop. Compare this to another dog who lives in a similar location. This dog heads out of the front door once the lead goes on, but they wander along the street at their own pace, their human content to follow along where the dog’s nose takes them, letting them check out the local canine gossip and see what’s going on in their local area. This second dog covers maybe only a fraction of the distance of the first dog, is out for less time, but goes home much more content and tired.

How can that be the case? Welcome to the concept of the ‘sniffy walk’ or ‘sniffari’. This is a walk where the dog is in charge of where you go, what pace you go at (within reason – loose lead walking rules still apply!) and how long you spend in one particular spot. If you are now thinking ‘Hang on a minute, I don’t want to hang around while my dog sniffs, I want to walk!’ think about this – whose walk is it anyway? If you want to go for a faster, longer walk at times that’s fine, but let your dog have time to stop and smell the roses (or whatever else they want to sniff) at least a few times a week. This is allowing them to show their natural behaviours, and so it is only ethical and kind that we let them be dogs for a while.

Analysing the scents they find and processing the information is also a great form of mental exercise. Working the brain can tire a dog out every bit as effectively - or even more so - as physical exercise. A recent study on the effects of certain dog behaviours while walking compared the amount of time spent sniffing to the effect on their pulse rates. Dogs were assessed while being walked on a short lead, a long lead and off lead, and the amount of time they spent sniffing recorded. Sniffing reduces the pulse rates, and the effect was more pronounced the more intense the sniffing. More details on the study can be found on their website HERE.

From my own experience with my dog, a young Border Collie with the expected energy levels for the breed, a fifteen minute sniffy walk around our local little block of streets has him coming back to the house and parking himself firmly on the sofa for an hour or more, usually upside down and snoring. It has easily the same tiring effect on him as walking without being allowed to sniff much for an hour. He comes back from a sniffari relaxed and content. As the human part of the equation it is incredibly satisfying to see a dog that happy. In our case, a mixture of longer walks (either on a long line or off lead as much as is possible, safe, and responsible) and loose lead, dog directed sniffy walks make for a happy dog.

Sniffing is a natural behaviour for a dog. One of the Five Freedoms of animal welfare is the freedom to express natural behaviours. Smell is also a massive part of how dogs interpret and communicate with their world – those incredibly sensitive noses and huge part of the brain dedicated to the processing and analysing of scent show just how important smell is to dogs as a species. We humans process our world largely through our eyes – would you want to be taken for a drive through beautiful countryside and not be allowed to look out of the window?