Dogs ‘see’ in scent, which is why foraging is so important to their wellbeing. We walk into a room and gather information predominantly through visual information. Dogs walk into a room and gather information through their nose.
So, if your dog goes into a room and realises someone has accidently dropped something tasty, they can go right to it because the scent is diffusing from the food and the dog just needs to follow the increasing strength of scent until he reaches his prize.
In the same way, if you’re walking your dog at the park, off lead, and he catches a scent particle of nearby diffusing fox poo he will be able to follow the particles right to the poo and be shoulder down in it before you know it is even there. Dogs don’t only use scent to find the prize though, they use it to determine everything. To identify each other, to recognise us and to ‘see’ exactly what’s going on in an area at any given time.
Long before the invention of writing and the wheel, dogs began to shape the way humans lived. While societies are conventionally understood as populated by humans and nature is understood as composed of other creatures, researchers continue to explore the concept of companion species. Humans and dogs fates are intertwined in ways that the old distinction between domesticator and domesticated cannot be adequately addressed.
The notion that the human being ends at the skin and that an animal exists as a tool to be exploited to whatever end the human intends is arbitrary and false. The story of humans and companion species involves much more than the exploitation of the dog's labor. Dogs (and horses) and humans live and have evolved jointly. Our species are bonded.
Always remembering that our dogs are living in a world that forces them to inhibit most of their instincts, and often don't have adequate means to channel their energy and frustration, building a deep relationship and bond is inherent in our history with dogs.
But, in order to make it happen, you have to first define "it". You create a map for yourself, figuring out where you are starting from and identifying your strengths and establishing your goals.
Foraging for food has been a main Mission for dogs for thousands of years. If we offer them their meals in a bowl all the time, even though they may love their food, we are creating a missed opportunity for them. Up to a third of their life pre-domestication would have been focussed on finding food, that’s a third of ‘empty time’ if we don’t allow them to continue using that skill.
Alongside the opportunity to find their food, foraging is an excellent opportunity for the dog to use his amazing nose. The dog’s ability to detect scent puts our own to shame.
Scent is the number one way that dogs are associating with and orienting to the environment. There is no way to exclude scent or the dogs amazing ability to detect scent in any aspect of our relationship with dogs. You must always take into account that the dog will be detecting scents and determining how they relate to their environment. Most times we will not be able to detect the scents that they do. Be sensitive to this and you will really start to be on your dog's team.