How to Transform Your Walks by Understanding Your Dog's Nose!

We have a 17 month old standard poodle and all our walks involve him sniffing as he wants to. I’m fine with it, he gets really tired out, I think we also do a nice balance of him walking and sniffing (and peeing). I think the main thing is around the dog parent mindset, it’s about being willing to literally stop and smell the roses so to speak and not be as focused on going from point a to point b in a certain time period; and it’s about thinking who is this walk for? When my dog is doing his thing I look at trees, flowers, listen to bird song, breath in the air, and treat the walk as part of my daily mindfulness.

As a guide dog puppy raiser we try to discourage sniffing unless it's allowed by the handler. A colleague visited a blind persona to check on their somewhat older guide dog. On examination she realised something was wrong with the dog and a Vet confirmed the dog was also blind. It could still function as a guide dog mainly because of it's nose.

Its never occurred to me to not let my dog sniff as much as he wants! He lives for his walks. And I just love watching him enjoy it. My old elderly dog had a little cart he could get into when tired. Id push it up to his favorite sniff spots for him, and you could tell how much he apprieciated it. Great video!

My dog was never trained to be a service dog, but he is excellent with my anxiety. He warns me of an impending panic attack with excellent accuracy. He also knows how to calm an attack that’s already happening. I never trained him for any of it. We got him from a shelter.

I loved this episode, it's fascinating how the senses work. The emphasis on not suppressing instinctive behaviors is really important. I think it's easy for people to see sniffing as a way to be lazy/avoid walking, even though it isn't. Understanding how the dog's olfactory system works is really helpful in being more empathetic and effective in your training.

Zak, I've learnt so much from you! I have my first puppy and thanks to you she has learned so many things already. People ask me if I have had dogs before, since I seem to be such a good trainer. Of course I tell them 'no' and tell them about you. Thank you for helping us!

This is now my favorite video of yours. I learned that sniffing burns MAJOR calories (if a dog sniffs for 10 minutes, they burn as many calories as if they’ve taken a 1 mile walk). They use their noses to tell time, too! I have a dog client who has pretty severe people/dog reactivity and so we start each walk with a 10 minute snuffle mat session, and the reactivity reliably goes down afterward on our walk.

I get to take my dog to an off-leash forest for one kind of walk (heaven!) and a town walk. On the first she’s free to sniff the whole time. On the second she gets to sniff at her pace for the first third, then it’s stop and go for the rest. I use a form of “Let’s go” to break it up. I loved all the science in this video. Very informative. And respectful if dog’s’ biological needs. As usual. Thanks Zak!

I had a dog that picked up the blood sugar thing on her own. My grandson is type 1 diabetic and my friend got us a puppy to bond over. When she got older, I would hear him whining in the other room going, "papa the dog wont leave me alone." I'd go in there and she'd be pushing him toward me. We'd check his blood sugar and it would be off every time she did it.

I love watching my dog having a good sniff when we go for a walk. I find myself imagining his world and slightly envying it.

Thank you for making this video! I've been searching for a video like this everywhere. No one seems to address it. This is very helpful :)

very interesting. Sometimes I get upset with the amount of sniffing my dog wants to do on a walk. I now see it differently. Thank you

Thank you for this video topic Zak!

Playing "find it" with my dog is one of my favorite things to watch him do. It's like his brain changes how it's functioning- he might be sniffing out a treat he would be able to see but takes extra time to find with his nose because he is simply not looking with his eyes. It's amazing and so fun and he gets better and better at finding things the more we play the "find it" game

One thing I've learned is to change up the environment and take them to a park or trail to give them a new area of sniffs. Sometimes (especially in cities/suburban areas), a dog can get very bored, smelling the same area over and over. Also, I take a moment to hide treats without my dogs in an area. (Multiple treats) Then let them go in and search around. In a multi dog situation like I have I have to separate them and allow each of them in so there isn't a fight. Since I've had dogs I never understood why humans were so bent on stopping a dog from be themselves...as long as you have a boundary set up for them...I just let them sniff and go on when they are ready. The walks are not about my 'exercise routine' but them having the time to explore their world I brought them into. So I've been doing these smell walks for years and boy does it wear them out.

What a great video and I am so glad I found your channel..and I of course subscribed. I love taking my dogs out for smell walks. I wish they could tell me what they are smelling because some of those smells they will really get their noses in deep. Just watching them smell things and seeming to derive such pleasure just brings me joy..what makes my dogs happy makes me happy..

Great video! This is something I can personally use. I really appreciate you showing the entire process the way you did.

I say "what do you smell? When he puts his nose high in the air to smell something on the breeze. Then I make sniffing noises with my nose. It gets him really excited that I'm taking part in the activity and recognizing how good the scent is. Ha!

I have two commands for walks, one for "walk for exercise" and one for "sniff away" lol. We tend to do half the walk sniffing, and half the walk walking at a greater pace

Great video. Many useful ideas to train.