Picture this: You have a visitor at home and your dog bounds up to them and immediately starts smelling their crotch. Embarrassing, right? You may have even noticed your furry friend smelling your crotch on occasion. Here’s why he or she is doing it.
It is perfectly normal for dogs to sniff your crotch or a visitor’s crotch. If your dog sniffs crotches off and on, there’s nothing to worry about. You can put it down to normal canine behavior and ignore it.
A dog’s sense of smell is up to 10,000 times sharper than ours. The part of a dog’s brain that interprets smell is approximately 40 times bigger than the smell center in humans. In addition to some 300 million smell sensors in the nose, dogs have a special organ in the roof of the mouth called Jacobson’s organ that helps them interpret different scents.
These features are evolutionary adaptations because smell is a dog’s way of communicating with the world. Dogs use smell to gather information about others (humans and animals) as well as to say hello.
Dogs smell your crotch because your crotch contains many apocrine (sweat) glands that have a distinctive smell because they release natural chemicals called pheromones. Apocrine glands are present in the armpits and genitals in humans. For dogs, the genitals or crotch are most accessible. Sniffing these glands gives a dog a lot of information about you or a visitor to your home, such as age and sex. Dogs will even sniff a crotch to find out if there’s any possibility of mating.
Interestingly, smell is behind many other undesirable dog behaviors like smelling your butt, rolling in poop, and licking your feet.
Again, the answer lies in strong smells. Some crotches are naturally more attractive to dogs, for example, crotches belonging to people on their period, people who have just had sexual intercourse, or people who have recently given birth. That’s why you may have noticed your dog smelling your crotch more often when you’re on your period.
Some ranchers in Australia use this behavior to their advantage. They have trained their Australian Shepherds to sniff out cows that have ovulated recently. This is helpful because cows have a short breeding window. The dogs help the ranchers identify and more effectively breed their ovulating cows.
Your dog could be an avid crotch sniffer for a number of reasons. Male dogs that have not been neutered will often smell a crotch to see if a female is ovulating and ready to mate.
Scent hounds like Basset Hounds, Bloodhounds, and Beagles have an even more finely-tuned sense of smell than other dogs. These breeds are more likely to sniff at crotches.
As mentioned above, if you are menstruating or have recently had sex or given birth, you are excreting more and different pheromones. Your dog may smell your crotch more frequently in such scenarios to find out what’s going on. Some dogs steal your underwear for the same reason.
Again, sniffing at a visitor’s crotch is just your dog’s way of saying hello and gathering some information. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t embarrassing for both you and your visitor.
Consider distracting your pooch by asking your guest to give their hand to your dog to sniff. This will divert your dog’s attention away from the crotch.
Another thing you can try is giving your dog the sit command when someone enters your home. This can help ensure your dog doesn’t immediately bound up to a visitor and start to gather information by sniffing at their crotch.
Look for interactive toys that engage your dog’s sense of smell. For example, a scent mat can provide hours of mental stimulation, keep your dog entertained when you’re away from home, and help reduce behaviors like crotch smelling.
Playing scent-based games with your dog can also aid in channeling their scent-seeking behaviors to less embarrassing pursuits. You can train your dog to detect scents and communicate to you when you they find a particular scent. Many dog training facilities offer this type of training.
12 December, 2022