Snow Dog
Don’t Shake It Off
Did you ever look out your house window and smell the rain coming down? Turns out you can! Well, technically, since moisture heightens scents, what you’re actually smelling is something call geosmin. That’s a natural organic compound produced by soil microbes and algae - in other words, earthy dirt smell.
Same with snow! In fact, even more so if it’s that early season, wet snow.
Why do I know this? Because our dog, Pip, loves snow and I was trying to figure out why. Turns out a lot of dogs love snow, even the ones who don’t love rain.
In fact, there’s been a ton of behavioral papers written about it! Here’s one from the Scientific American called Why is Snow a Very Big Deal for Some Dogs?
Besides heightening a dog’s sense of smell, snow, it turns out, changes the sensory characteristics of everything a dog touches, and has the potential to renew a dog’s interest in its familiar surroundings, and switch on predator exploratory behavior.
Pip is a tiny goofball dork, so I’m not sure he’s much of a predator, but he does seem to get a kick out of rolling around in the white stuff and sticking his nose into yellow (gross) snow, though I suspect that’s a general dog trait.
Our cat, Lavi, on the other hand would fight to the death to stay out of the snow and looks with disdain at Pip as he shakes the flakes off onto her.
All this is to say that I have nothing better to write about on this white, chilly morning than the heavy parka I need to take the dog for a walk in the snow. How about you? Do you have a canine that can’t get enough of the white stuff. Or is yours a warm weather beast?
Our late husky loved being out in the snow. He would roll in it, tunnel through it with his nose, and dig out moles to torture.
Oh, our dogs absolutely love playing in the snow. One of them especially - Tonks - can't get enough of it!