Mental Stimulation From Sniffing: Why Walking Your Dog is Essential

Last week, we discussed the best dog walking services in Mandeville, but we didn’t cover why dog walking is important. There are so many advantages to dog walking that they can’t fit in a single article, though! So, over the next several weeks, we’ll go over the different reasons why walking your dog every day is an essential element of their care. Each week, we’ll focus on one specific benefit of daily dog walks. To kick off this project, let’s talk about how walks can provide dogs with mental stimulation from sniffing!

So often when we talk about walking our dogs, we focus on the physical benefits. While those are good points (and we’ll cover plenty of them in the future), we shouldn’t forget about how mentally beneficial daily walks are!

Taking your dog for walks provides necessary mental stimulation. Indoors, we keep our homes clean, so we rarely introduce new options for sensory input. In contrast, there’s always something new for your dog to find outside! The wind carries particles from afar, the plants release all sorts of pollen, and critters outside constantly run around and leave their scent behind. The possibilities are endless, and it offers limitless enrichment for your beloved pet. Simply taking your dog outside and letting them sniff around helps keep them mentally engaged and staves off boredom.

Not only does it keep boredom away, studies show that it may make them more optimistic! That may sound like an odd sentence upon first glance, but the results of cognitive experiments reflect improved emotional states of dogs who are allowed to sniff as much as they please. Allowing our dogs to follow their noses offers them a chance for autonomy that our animal companions don’t often get. An article by Dr. Bekoff in Psychology Today suggests that refusing dogs this option may even be considered sensory deprivation.

A dog’s sense of smell is anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than a human! It’s an amazing fact, and we can’t even imagine what it’s like to experience life with such powerful senses. Thanks to science and observation, though, we know that dogs’ mental stimulation from sniffing is no joke. As a dog owner, you can make your pet’s life better just by bringing them outside and letting them lead you where their nose takes you!

Last week, we discussed the best dog walking services in Mandeville, but we didn’t cover why dog walking is important. There are so many advantages to dog walking that they can’t fit in a single article, though! So, over the next several weeks, we’ll go over the different reasons why walking your dog every day…