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Why do dogs like to roll in stinky things?

Why do dogs like to roll in stinky things?

Update: 2025-01-27

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If you’ve ever taken a dog on a walk, or let them run around the woods, you know that they LOVE to roll around in stinky stuff! And it’s one heck of a mess to clean up. Why do they do that? We asked researcher Elizabeth Carranza from the Arizona Canine Cognition Center to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s rolling around in your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help sniff out the answer.

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Transcript

00:00:00

From the brains behind brains on, this is the moment of hum.

00:00:03

Moment of hum comes to you from APM Studios.

00:00:11

I've seen the dog, whiff.

00:00:13

Let me paint you a picture.

00:00:18

It's Tuesday.

00:00:20

It's 82 degrees outside.

00:00:21

The backyard is just begging for me to run around in it in circles.

00:00:26

My human opens up the sliding door into the backyard and I run through.

00:00:32

I've got a pile of leaves on my left and a band and fire pit to pee there.

00:00:40

A Binghunkan squirrel right above my head.

00:00:43

Hey Jerry, the stick I carried around for two hours straight yesterday.

00:00:48

High stick and...

00:00:49

What's that?

00:00:52

Is that juice dripping out of the garbage can?

00:00:57

Stinky old juice?

00:00:59

It smells awful.

00:01:03

I love it.

00:01:05

I think I can wedge my body right next to this garbage bin and just...

00:01:09

Oh yeah, Binghunkan.

00:01:11

That mug is totally covering my formerly clean fur.

00:01:15

I smell like straight-up garbage.

00:01:17

This is the best day of my life.

00:01:19

My buddy Luke wanted to know why a dog's love rolling around and stinky stuff.

00:01:25

So, I've got a human who knows a lot about it.

00:01:28

Check this out.

00:01:29

The big question is what are they thinking?

00:01:39

Why are they doing what they're doing?

00:01:42

My name's Elizabeth Peranza.

00:01:44

I work with the Arizona Canine Condition Center at the University of Arizona.

00:01:49

I help run studies we are doing with dogs.

00:01:52

They roll on the stinky thing because they enjoy it and it might be this instinctual thing they want to do to hide or hide from prey they maybe want to get.

00:02:06

So, as you know, dogs are descendants of wolves who are predators and dogs themselves are predator animals.

00:02:13

So, they do some of them have this want or behavior to hunt other prey.

00:02:21

And so, if they're doing that, they don't want to be heard seeing or smell.

00:02:26

So, the thing is, if you roll in something really stinky or smelly, your prey won't smell you before you're coming.

00:02:33

They have amazing, amazing notices.

00:02:36

We have grown up and been sort of taught in culture or just society like smelling bad is not a good thing.

00:02:45

We have that a lot with our dogs.

00:02:48

They do things that to us are either abnormal or gross.

00:02:53

And so, going to roll in something stinky also doesn't have a purpose for us, but also maybe have negative effects in our day-to-day lives if we were walking around smelling like we rolled in a dead fish,

00:03:04

for example.

00:03:05

I think it's very much up to the owner, the person.

00:03:10

I don't think anybody really wants their dog smelling like a dead fish, but it's not a bad behavior in their eyes.

00:03:20

And so, I think if you couldn't have tried to avoid it, try maybe lead them away from the smell.

00:03:25

If you have a treat with you as maybe you're walking around, try to distract them with that instead.

00:03:31

But I don't think it's anything that they should be punished for.

00:03:34

Thank you, Elizabeth.

00:03:42

I love you, Elizabeth.

00:03:45

You get me.

00:03:46

And yet, my doggy nose is a great and powerful tool.

00:03:50

Did you know that my nose is so powerful that it can smell substances at concentrations of one part per trillion?

00:03:59

That means if you put a single drop of liquid in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools, I'd be able to sniff it out.

00:04:07

Aren't I amazing?

00:04:09

And yet.

00:04:10

And yet, my humans hate it when I'm stinky in any way.

00:04:16

And they say, "Oh, CC, that's gross."

00:04:18

And then they give me a bath, the injustice, the horror.

00:04:24

And then I end up smelling like lavender and papaya disgusting.

00:04:32

I'd much rather smell like the putrid drippings of a garbage can.

00:04:36

Because guess what?

00:04:37

If I'm super stinky, that squirrel from before will never see me snigging up on him.

00:04:43

Which reminds me, "Oh, Jerry, come here little guy."

00:04:49

Jerry, come back.

00:04:51

I just want to play.

00:04:52

I promise.

00:04:54

If you liked this episode, take a second to subscribe to Moment of Love, wherever you listen to podcasts.

00:05:03

And if you want to learn more about me, CC, the dog, check out the Brains on Podcast where we have a whole episode all about whether dogs know their dogs.

00:05:12

Yeah, dogs.

00:05:13

Want to see our shows come to life?

00:05:16

Had to YouTube where we've got awesome animated Brains on episodes.

00:05:20

Search BrainsOnUniverse on YouTube and subscribe.

00:05:24

If you have a question, we'd love to help you answer it.

00:05:27

Drop us a line by going to brainson.org/contact.

00:05:32

See you next time and the next day and every weekday.

00:05:35

Until then, whoop.

00:05:38

Get back here, Jerry.

00:05:49

Jerry!

00:05:51

Why do dogs like to roll in stinky things?

Why do dogs like to roll in stinky things?

American Public Media

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