Humanizing dog behavior is a mistake for many reasons. It distances us from dog behavior and prevents us from properly understanding why they do what they do sometimes.
If we only communicate with our dog in a purely human language, we can harm our relationship, and we will remain perplexed by multiple behaviors that we cannot understand unless we approach from a canine perspective.
Like many people, including ourselves, we have wondered. why do dogs smell our crotch? In the following article from AnimalWised, you will find the answer!
A common sign in dog communication...
The language of dogs can be very complex for us and you will certainly need time and dedication to understand it. However, there is a premise that is very important that you know: dogs have a very developed sense of smell. Therefore, they primarily use this sense to know their surroundings and extract information.
Dogs, as well as most mammals, have structures called sweat apocrine glands, which are distributed throughout the body but with a greater presence in the genital and anal area.
These glands produce odorous substances that fulfill the important function of transporting social information. These substances are popularly known as pheromones and through them a dog can get a lot of information about another dog: sex, age, mood and variations in sexuality, for example, when they are in heat.
It is for this reason that dogs smell the genitalia of each other, it is a very habitual behavior since it allows them to obtain the information they need about the other.
Why do dogs smell our crotch?
When a dog sniffs our intimate parts it is simply to obtain information from us, just as they do with other dogs. The problem is that we are surprised, however, dogs communicate with humans in canine language, it is unrealistic to expect another kind of more humanized communication.
Humans also have sweat apocrine glands, but they are not distributed throughout the body but are present in the armpits and the groin. Therefore, a dog that wants to get information from us is usually close to our groins to smell our intimate parts.
This behavior is very common when the dog doesn't know a human being, but it is also highly habitual when they do already know someone, since when they sniff our crotch they are trying to figure out how we are! With a known person this behavior could well be interpreted as an affectionate greeting.
The behavior of smelling the intimate parts of humans is notably accentuated in the following cases:
- People who have had sex recently
- Women who are menstruating
- Women who have recently given birth and are breastfeeding
- Women who ovulate (here is very noticeable the accentuation of this behavior)
Dogs can know many things about humans through their powerful nose.
What to do when a dog sniffs your crotch...
Although this behavior may be uncomfortable, the truth is that the most sensible and healthy thing for us to do is absolutely nothing. Intervening is to prevent your dog from using their natural language, this prevention would be cruel.
In order for your dog to develop in a healthy way and for your relationship to be as balanced as possible, you should never try to avoid this completely normal behavior and allow your pet to feel more united and secure in front of people.
If you want to read similar articles to Why do Dogs Smell our Crotch?, we recommend you visit our Facts about the animal kingdom category.