Dogs are our best friends. We embrace, we kiss, we play and we sleep with them, we walk them, they are the first and last thing we see before going to sleep. And yet, we could not be more different, both psychologically and physically.
For this reason, dogs have many attitudes that we see daily but do not really understand and above all, we would not repeat them. This is the case of the habit of sniffing the butt of other dogs, especially in a first encounter.
The smell of dogs
Dogs have a much more sensitive sense of smell than humans, about 10 to 100 thousand times more sensitive. That is why these animals are guided by their nose and are constantly sniffing to make decisions, either find food in a particular part of the house or play with a dog that they just met.
The sniffing of another dog's butt is no more than an effective mode of chemical communication in the animal kingdom.
Animals use chemical communication for different purposes. The best known for us is the brand of territory, where animals leave pheromones to mark territory and warn other animals. Pheromones are a means of signal transmission. Broadly speaking, they are chemical substances that living beings are able to secrete in certain situations in order to provoke a reaction of an animal of their species.
In essence, this is the reason why dogs sniff the butts of other dogs.
Sniffing the butt to communicate
Dogs sniff the butts of other dogs as a method of communication without speaking, is something like "communicate through chemicals." When a dog comes close to sniffing the butt of another dog, it can determine the diet, the gender and the emotional state of the other dog.
All this information is released from the anal region through chemicals. The anal secretions of dogs contain chemical compounds such as amines and acids that generate a particular aroma. These chemicals are secreted by the anus, since it is where the anal gland is located that is responsible for secreting such compounds.
On the other hand, dogs have an organ known as the Jacobson organ that is located between the nose and the mouth. It is an organ that is part of the sense of smell and is capable of detecting different chemical compounds. This organ allows dogs to detect compounds in the backside of other dogs and communicate chemically. In addition, it is directly connected to the brain and for this reason the aroma of the fecal matter does not intervene in the sniffing.
Interesting method to communicate ... do not you think?