Northwest Wanderings: Doggy delight: eau d' 'eeeuw'

Seventh in an occasional series

Since long before the World Wide Web, iPads, smartphones and Kindles, dogs have had their own hot spots.

Olfactory-based — and we don't even know they're there.

But dogs do.

They find something stinky and roll around in it. It's ancient, it's instinctive and they can't help themselves. Anything handy will do, including seaweed, fish carcasses, dead voles. The key is all things rotting.

Maybe if our brains were 40 times more devoted to smells we'd be rolling on our backs, too, instead of stomping, yelling and scolding "man's best friend" to no effect.

According to Pat Owen, collection manager at Woodland Park Zoo and wolf expert, "the two most popular and likely hypotheses are that they are either masking their smell by rolling in the stink or they are trying to cover up the smell with their own smell to make sure all know that it is their territory. Either way, the fact is it is a communication-by-smell behavior."

This is why dogs love to roll after having a bath — to get rid of that awful, new fragrance.

Why don't they appreciate the aroma of those shampoos we purchase?

Don't they want to smell like us?

Maybe doggy shampoo should not smell like something Ralph Lauren came up with.

Maybe it should smell like a fish carcass.

Or a soft-ripened French cheese.

Alan Berner: aberner@seattletimes.com or 206-464-8133