Lets go on Sniffari!

A Sniffari is when we take our dog out and let them sniff whatever they want and for however long they want (taking safety of your dog and everyone else into account!). It doesn't matter how far you go - the point of the walk is to just let your dog use its nose.

Sniffari walks will exercise your dog both physically and mentally and are also a great way to help them relax and de-stress. Studies have also shown that when dogs sniff, whether off lead or on a long line, it reduces their pulse rate.

Compared to us, dogs have an amazing sense of smell. They can possess up to 300 million olfactory receptor neurons in their noses (cells that help send information about smells to the brain) compared to around 5 million in ours. If a dogs sight was as good as its sense of smell, what we can see at a third of a mile away a dog could see clearly at around 3,000 miles away. That's about the distance from the UK all the way to the Empire State Building in New York!

Dogs can find out a huge amount about their environment through sniffing. They are able to pick up information left by other dogs and any other animal that has passed though that area - its a bit like the doggy equivalent of Facebook!

So next time you take your pup out, let them sniff without interruption where you can. You don't have to go on Sniffari for the whole of your walk, just the first 5-10 minutes or so will still stimulate and enrich your dogs walk.