Why does my husky sniff everything?

If your husky has an urge to sniff everything, you’re probably wondering why and what can be done about it.

This post will show you a number of reasons why it might be doing it and what you can do about it.

So, why does my husky sniff everything? Possible reasons are that it does it to gather information such as what other animals have been around, it is hungry, its eyesight is not as good as ours, or that it is curious about something.

There are actually a number of reasons why your husky might sniff everything and there are a number of things that you can consider that will help you in figuring out the exact reason.

Why your husky sniffs everything

Each of the different reasons that your husky sniffs everything will likely come with some clues in the way that it does it. Below are a number of possible causes and what would make them more likely.

It smells to get information

The main reason that dogs will sniff things a lot is that sniffing things will give them a lot of information. For example, the urine of other dogs will tell it where it has been, its health status and what it has been eating. This is the case for humans too. They can even pick up on the ovulation of humans which is why they will sniff females more during certain parts of the month (source).

They want to know what other animals have been around

The reason that your husky sniffs things could be that it is gathering information about what other animals have been around. By sniffing things it will be able to smell the scent of other animals which will tell it what animals have been around recently.

It’s curious

The reason that it does it could be that it is curious. As mentioned above, dogs get a lot of information about things by sniffing them in addition to looking at them. This could be why it sniffs you when you come home since it wants to smell the scent on you to find out what other animals have been around you.

It is hungry

If it starts sniffing things suddenly it might be because it is hungry. This would be more likely to be the case if your husky suddenly starts to sniff things that might be edible such as dirt, empty bags of food or even poop.

Their eyesight is not as good as ours

Another reason that dogs will sniff things is that they do not have vision that is as good as ours. They cannot focus well on things that are close to them and are partially color blind. In addition to this, huskies have moderately large muzzles which can get in the way of their vision. By sniffing things, they will be able to make up for areas where they lack in vision.

It can store the scent

Sometimes huskies will repeatedly sniff on the same thing. One reason for this is that they are able to store the scent of something which is something that humans can’t do. This means that, with each sniff, they are able to glean more information which is why they will sometimes keep sniffing at things.

How to stop your dog sniffing everything when it is on a walk

If you’re having the problem where your husky is constantly stopping to sniff things when on a walk, you could try making use of positive reinforcement training to get it to stop. This is where you reward your husky for displaying the behaviors that you want to see and you don’t reward it when it does not display them.

To use positive reinforcement training to get your husky to stop sniffing things on walks it would be necessary to train it not to pull on the leash. You would do this by stopping whenever it starts to pull on the leash and then to reward it when it does particularly well.

You can watch the video below to see more:

Take it on separate walks so that it can examine new smells

If you want to give your husky some extra excitement and you always go on the same walk one thing that you could do is to take it on a new route one day. This should help keep it entertained and avoid boredom. However, it is likely that it will stop a lot to smell things so it is likely that it will take longer than usual.