Dogs are good pets because of their positive attitude and learning behavior. They ease your anxieties and offer you good health. However, you might be unaware that they have an intense sense of smell that is 40 times more advanced than humans.
They can get any information by sniffing.
Why is my dog sniffing me more than usual?
Dogs have an intense level of smell because of their powerful and advanced olfactory receptors and by sniffing they could get to know about thousands of things like mood, hormonal change, body sickness or with whom we interact. Actually, these things sometimes cause them to sniff more than usual.
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Dogs have such a powerful sense of smell that by one sniff they can even detect your age, gender, mood or any health issues. Normally, they sniff when they want love and attention but most of the time they try to gather information by sniffing to detect any change.
However, sometimes dogs can sniff aggressively. This can happen if they find you sweaty, if you have hormonal changes or stress or anxiety or sickness, if you have recently visited any new place etc. In fact, they can sniff for other reasons as well.
Here’s the reason briefly discussing when makes dogs sniff more than as usual:
Enjoying smell:
As dogs have a keen sense of smell, they can particularly recognize any smell. Like they have a strong affection for how their owners smell and that’s because the person is most important to them.
Their bonding comes from the association while feeding time, playtime and giving training and they set a particular affectionate smell in their mind that they enjoy.
Trying to get attention:
Sniffing can be a sign of trying to get some love and attention from their owner. Sometimes, they may want some love, physical touch like a hug, a belly rub, a pat on the head in the form of praise or treats.
It also can be a learned behavior when they want attention and if you normally give back so.
Smelling too sweaty:
After coming from walking or jogging or any work you’re exhausted and sweating. The sweat comes from the apocrine glands that are normally found in the areas with hair.
The sweat of our body produces a smell when the high-protein sweat from apocrine gets mixed with the natural bacteria of our skin.
In the armpits, groin, anus and genital areas, these sweat glands can be found with highest concentration. If you notice your dog is sniffing in those areas so much that’s because you’re overly sweaty.
Their obsession works for apocrine glands that their nose can pick up.
Gathering information:
The sense of smell of dogs is more powerful and advanced than humans. They can gather so much information about you in just one sniff.
They are in fact very inquisitive and try to know every information of their owner like their mood, where they have been the whole day, from where they came, with whom his owner have been and etc.
Facing hormonal changes:
If your body has hormonal issues or any changes like menstruating or ovulating, your dog can realize the ups and downs of hormonal balance and sniff you a lot.
For menopause, the estrogen and for ovulation, the luteinizing hormone is responsible and by their super sensitive nose, dogs can tell what’s going on in your hormonal levels. Moreover, they obviously get the smell of blood that attracts them for sniffing.
Any change in the routine:
Dogs are pretty careful of maintaining a routine and they expect what you usually do for him at a particular time. Any changes in your routine can confuse them.
As a result, they can’t stay quiet and relaxed and they try to figure out what is happening by sniffing more aggressively than usual.
Recently visited somewhere:
When we visit new places we get to know and interact with new people, have new or different foods, sleep in different beds, use different soap or shampoo or perfume, or get touched by other animals, these all are noticed by your dog.
They have such a powerful sense that they can even sense, you have just arrived from a trip.
Having sickness:
By their incredible sense of smell, dogs can sense if you have diabetes, low blood pressure, urinary tract infections or migranes. In fact, dogs can sense fatal diseases like cancer.
They actually want to find some unique identity that will differentiate his owner from all and they may sniff all over your body if they can detect sickness.
Got a new brand of perfume or changed your soap:
Humans are fond of smelling nice and regularly use a soap and perfume. But if there’s any change in your perfume or soap, the dog might be confused about the smell that he used to get.
He might get excited as he was not familiar with the new smell and start sniffing you a lot. In fact, the new smell can be overwhelming the dog’s nostrils that can result in sniffing. When the dog will get used to the new smell, he might stop bothering you.
You are pregnant or recently have a baby:
If you’re pregnant, your hormone levels begin to change and your body releases progesterone, estrogen, gonadotropin and other thousands of hormones. Or maybe, you just gave birth to a child and your body releases breastfeeding hormones.
Not only does the body have hormonal changes but also physical change during the pregnancy that the dogs can realize and sniff you a lot.
Having anxiety or stress:
Happiness, anger, or sadness or stress, nervousness or anxiety etc. are the emotions of the human body that comes from secret hormones and dogs have the ability to interpret that.
When you’re having these emotions, your dog gets a different odor and by sniffing more they want to know about the changes. Moreover, nervousness or stress makes human sweat more that also causes them to sniff more than usual.
Got touched by other animals:
Dogs are quite jealous and always try to get attention and praise. If we visited somewhere and interacted with another animal the smell will end up on your body which your pet dog can detect.
As a result, your dog feels more interested in you out of jealousy or try to know about those animals you’ve met.
Is it ok if my dog suddenly sniffs me more than usual?
It’s actually normal if your dog sniffs you more than usual suddenly. Dogs have a keen sense of smell that is thousands of times more advanced than a human’s sense of smell. They can detect the age, gender, mood of a person just by sniffing.
Moreover, they can incredibly feel if you’re sick or having anxiety.
Normally puppies are fond of love and try to get attention by sniffing. But sometimes we notice, they are sniffing more than usual. It’s because they want to gather information or have detected some change in your body.
It can be your hormones up and down, stress or any body sickness or even sweats. However, it is the normal nature of dogs.
How can I stop my dog from sniffing me all over?
Dogs may sniff for various reasons. But sometimes they may behave aggressively and sniff you all over. This may bother you when you’re outside or sometimes fall you in an awkward situation. Here are some ideas to stop dog sniffing you all over:
Make them focus on food:
You can drag their focus by giving their food. Try to give them food by your own hand and try to build eye contact with your puppy. Make them understand, you’re rewarding them by giving them food. This may help to some extent to distract them from bothering you by sniffing.
Take them outside:
Frequently take your puppies for a workout, teach them walking manners, make them follow you and exercise their nose. Taking them on a walk will offer them new smells that’ll help to appease the curious nose.
Try to make a connection with your dog while taking them outside. This will help to engage them mentally and make your puppies less likely to sniff things.
Train your puppy:
Simple training can distract them and help your dog to stop sniffing you aggressively. Teach them ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘leave it’, ‘sit’, ‘eat’ etc. commands and don’t allow any inappropriate behavior. Train them until they are responding well and give them treats if they’re obeying.
However, don’t punish them and don’t make them feel that they’re punished.
Final thoughts
Because of their incredible sense of smell, dogs can get information about various things by sniffing. Their olfactory receptors are more powerful than humans. Sniffing is their natural behavior but sometimes they can sniff more than usual if they can detect any change in the body.