Animals

What is this Dog Smelling?

Folks, I’ve been taking my relative’s dog for a walk recently, and I’ve noticed something.

As humans, we do everything we can to make sure something is safe to eat. We have the Food and Drug Administration that tests and monitors food to make sure it’s okay for us to eat. We have strict food safety laws. We have probably one of the safest food supplies in the world.

You know how a dog determines if something is safe to eat?

He eats it.

As humans we try to avoid bad smells. We wear deodorant. We have air freshener. We have strict environmental laws that prevent air pollution and odors from entering the atmosphere.

You know how a dog determines if something is too smelly?

He sticks his nose deep in it.

Let me tell you about this one dog I take for a walk — if he finds something he wants to know more about, he’ll sniff it for 5, 10 minutes.

I’m wondering, “What are you smelling?” He’s got his nose in there like he’s investigating a crime scene.

In his head, he’s determining the criminal’s height and weight, if he walks with a limp or not, and if he writes his mother a note on her birthday.

He must be gathering all this information because that dog is spending more time investigating a six-by-six inch square of the city park than I did on any kind of educational material during my five years of college.

Joe Ditzel

Joe Ditzel is a keynote speaker, humor writer, and really bad golfer. You can reach him via email at [email protected] as well as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.