为什么让你的狗嗅嗅如此重要

研究表明，社交媒体会导致焦虑和抑郁，并会让你陷入比较循环，让你觉得其他人都比你更好。因此，将社交媒体等同于让我们的狗嗅闻并不完全准确。

If you’re a dog owner, you’ve probably gotten stuck on a walk much longer than anticipated because of your dog’s incessant sniffing.

如果您是狗主人，您可能会因为您的狗不停地嗅而在散步中花费的时间比预期的要长得多。

While it may feel annoying in the moment, especially if you’re in a rush, research shows it’s important to let your dog sniff for their own well-being. People have even suggested that sniffing is essentially a dog’s form of social media — meaning it provides them with entertainment and enrichment.

虽然此刻可能会让人感到烦人，尤其是在您赶时间的情况下，但研究表明，让您的狗嗅探自己的健康状况非常重要。人们甚至认为嗅探本质上是狗的社交媒体形式——这意味着它为它们提供了娱乐和丰富。

Why is letting your dog sniff such a big deal? Is it really a social media equivalent? We asked veterinarians to break it down:

为什么让你的狗闻气味这么重要？它真的相当于社交媒体吗？我们请兽医来分解一下：

Social media has downsides, but letting your dog sniff does not.

社交媒体有缺点，但让你的狗嗅却没有缺点。

Research shows that social media can lead to anxiety and depression and can put you in the middle of a comparison cycle where you feel like everyone else has it better than you. So equating social media with letting our dogs sniff isn’t entirely accurate.

研究表明，社交媒体会导致焦虑和抑郁，并会让你陷入比较循环，让你觉得其他人都比你更好。因此，将社交媒体等同于让我们的狗嗅闻并不完全准确。

“While social media scrolling has its known downsides and can be a mind-numbing activity for many people, sniffing is a beneficial sensory experience for dogs by providing them with mental stimulation,” Dr. Whitney Miller, the chief veterinarian at Petco, told HuffPost via email.

Petco 首席兽医惠特尼·米勒 (Whitney Miller) 博士告诉赫芬顿邮报：“虽然社交媒体滚动有其已知的缺点，并且对许多人来说可能是一种令人麻木的活动，但嗅觉对狗来说是一种有益的感官体验，可以为它们提供精神刺激。”通过电子邮件。

However, sniffing is similar to social media in that it’s how dogs get updated on their surroundings. It’s how they recognize other dogs, learn and make decisions, Dr. Danielle Bernal, the global veterinarian at Wellness Pet Company, told HuffPost via email.

然而，嗅探与社交媒体类似，狗通过嗅探来了解周围环境的最新情况。 Wellness Pet Company 的全球兽医 Danielle Bernal 博士通过电子邮件告诉《赫芬顿邮报》，这是它们识别其他狗、学习和做出决定的方式。

Every time a dog sniffs, they take in data about their animal neighbors and their surroundings, she said.

她说，每次狗嗅嗅时，它们都会吸收有关动物邻居和周围环境的数据。

Sniffing is a necessary part of a dog’s existence, while social media is not a necessary part of ours. But both are ways that we learn about the world around us.

嗅觉是狗生存的必要组成部分，而社交媒体却不是我们生存的必要组成部分。但这都是我们了解周围世界的方式。

Sniffing is good for your dog’s health.

嗅对狗的健康有益。

“Sniffing has so many benefits for our dogs. Not only can it be a key method of communication to help them make sense of the world, but it doubles as a great form of mental enrichment to engage the body and mind, which is key to a dog’s overall well-being,” Bernal said.

“嗅闻对我们的狗有很多好处。它不仅可以成为帮助它们理解世界的关键沟通方式，而且还可以作为一种很好的精神丰富形式，让身体和心灵参与其中，这是狗整体健康的关键。”伯纳尔说。

While many dogs get stimulation from running around or playing with other pups, this isn’t always the case for dogs higher in age, making sniffing an even more important activity.

虽然许多狗会从四处奔跑或与其他幼崽玩耍中获得刺激，但对于年龄较大的狗来说，情况并非总是如此，这使得嗅觉成为一项更为重要的活动。

“For older dogs, especially, where physical activity may be reducing, taking a moment to stop and sniff delivers so much mental stimulation,” Bernal said, noting that sniffing can help older dogs stay healthy and active.

伯纳尔说：“特别是对于年长的狗来说，体力活动可能会减少，花点时间停下来闻一闻可以提供很大的精神刺激。”他指出，嗅闻可以帮助年长的狗保持健康和活跃。

Specifically, sniffing can help your dog stay physical active “as it increases respiration rate and can stimulate hormonal and metabolic processes in the body,” Miller said.

具体来说，嗅觉可以帮助你的狗保持身体活跃，“因为它可以增加呼吸频率，并可以刺激体内的荷尔蒙和代谢过程，”米勒说。

Sniffing can even have benefits for a dog’s mental health. It can make them feel more optimistic and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can reduce anxiety, too, Bernal said.

嗅闻甚至对狗的心理健康也有好处。伯纳尔说，这可以让他们感到更加乐观，并降低压力荷尔蒙皮质醇的水平，从而减少焦虑。

Miller stressed the importance of sniffing on a dog’s well-being, saying, “Dogs may feel stressed when they are not allowed to stop and sniff while on a walk because sniffing is how they assess their surroundings.”

米勒强调了嗅探对狗的健康的重要性，他说：“当狗在散步时不被允许停下来嗅时，它们可能会感到压力，因为嗅探是它们评估周围环境的方式。”

In fact, it’s part of their DNA.

事实上，这是他们 DNA 的一部分。

Your dog’s desire to sniff can be traced back to their ancestors, who roamed the earth hundreds of thousands of years ago, according to Bernal.

伯纳尔说，你的狗的嗅觉欲望可以追溯到它们的祖先，他们数十万年前就在地球上漫游。

“In North America, the most common canine ancestor was that of the gray wolf,” she said.

“在北美，最常见的犬类祖先是灰狼，”她说。

Gray wolves communicated through howling, body language and more, but their sense of smell was their most important tool.

灰狼通过嚎叫、肢体语言等进行交流，但嗅觉是它们最重要的工具。

“Today, that specialized and sensitive sense of smell is still dominant in our dogs,” Bernal said.

“今天，这种专门而敏感的嗅觉在我们的狗中仍然占主导地位，”伯纳尔说。

Humans largely depend on vision, but for dogs, smell is used to communicate and assess their surroundings.

人类很大程度上依赖视觉，但对于狗来说，嗅觉用于交流和评估周围环境。

Bernal explained that dogs have upward of 100 million sensory receptor sites in their noses, while humans have just 6 million. Plus, the part of our dog’s brain that analyzes odor is roughly 40 times larger than the comparable part in our human brain.

伯纳尔解释说，狗的鼻子里有超过 1 亿个感觉受体点，而人类只有 600 万个。另外，狗大脑中分析气味的部分大约比人脑中的相应部分大 40 倍。

“It’s estimated that depending on the breed, a dog’s sense of smell is 10,000 [to] 100,000 times better than a human’s,” Bernal said.

“据估计，狗的嗅觉比人类的嗅觉强 10,000 到 100,000 倍，具体取决于品种，”伯纳尔说。

There are several ways you can provide your dog the opportunity to sniff.

有多种方法可以为您的狗提供嗅探的机会。

Although sniffing around your neighborhood is how dogs learn about their neighbors, sniffing inside your home is also beneficial to their health.

虽然在你的邻居周围嗅是狗了解邻居的方式，但在你家里嗅也对它们的健康有益。

“While allowing your dog to get outside and sniff around is always a great option, there are some helpful at-home sniff toys and puzzles for rainy days when your dog may need extra stimulation,” Miller said.

米勒说：“虽然让你的狗到外面嗅一嗅总是一个不错的选择，但在雨天，当你的狗可能需要额外的刺激时，有一些有用的家用嗅觉玩具和拼图。”

You can let them sniff through snuffle mats and puzzle treat toys, or even hide treats around your home and challenge your dog to sniff them out. In other words, a rainy day doesn’t have to keep your pooch from sniffing.

您可以让它们通过鼻烟垫和益智玩具来嗅闻，甚至可以将零食藏在您家周围并挑战您的狗来嗅出它们。换句话说，下雨天并不一定要阻止你的狗嗅嗅。

Whatever you do, be sure to keep a watchful eye, especially when you’re outdoors.

无论你做什么，一定要保持警惕，尤其是在户外时。