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When two dogs meet , they often go direct for a puff of each other ’s behind . And anyone living in a multicat household will tell you that Caterpillar regularly put their nose under their fellow felines ' tails .
So why do dogs sniff each other ’s butts ? It turns out , there ’s a good reason behind this bottom - sniffing obsession .
Dogs can get all kinds of information from sniffing another canine’s derriere.
" Dogs can differentiate [ another cad ’s ] health and procreative status , key out what they have eat , and mostly overhear up on the ' news ' from smelling each other ’s rear ends , " saidEllen Furlong , an associate professor of psychology who specializes in animal cognition at Transylvania University in Lexington , Kentucky .
conjugation also play a role . " Male ( particularly unchanged ) dogs may also spend more time sniff females for information about their reproductive status , " Furlong tell Live Science in an email .
But how is it possible for dogs to glean all of this information from a simple butt sniff ? One of the first clew for unraveling this mystery do in 1976 , when astudy on dogs and coyoteswas published . The study discover that two modest pouch , one on each side of a dog ’s anus — known as anal retentive sacs — release a cocktail of smelly chemicals , including suspect - smelling trimethylamine and pungent propionic acid and butyric Elvis . These anal retentive sack secretion probably serve as chemical communication signaling between dog , according to astudy put out in 2021 .
Dogs can get all kinds of information from sniffing another canine’s derriere.
Related : Why do cats ' claws retract but hotdog ' claw do n’t ?
Each chemical release by a dog is potential to relay specific information to another dog , but scientists have yet to break up this scent code . Astudy published in 2023made some head in decipher this chemical linguistic process by compare the anal sac secretions of male and female dogs . It found that certain chemical were release only by female and others only by males .
The researchers also immortalize a fate of variation in the chemicals released and their absorption among individuals of the same sex . This suggests that parameter besides gender influence a dog ’s odor profile , the researchers say .
Cats also have a habit of sniffing each others' rear ends.
So a hotdog sniffs out a mixture of chemicals in another dog . Thanks to their far superior noses , wienerwurst canidentify individual smells in a mixtureand detect them at importantly small concentrations than world can . " A dog ’s sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times better than ours . Dogs can smell 1 part per TRILLION , which is truly astounding , " Furlong enounce .
Cats do it, too
A hombre ’s sense of smell also far surmount a human’s . Researchsuggests that scent detection is key to cats ' demeanor and overall hombre welfare , Kristyn Vitale , an assistant prof of animal health and behavior at Unity Environmental University in Maine told Live Science in an email .
Like dogs , cats have small glands that produce chemicals with distinct smell . " From smelling another cat ’s rear end , a cat can name whether that individual is familiar or unfamiliar to them , as well as the cat ’s sexual activity and even maybe their generative status , " Vitale say .
" Both manly and female cats utilize scent to name societal collaborator and communicate with them , " she added .
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In 2023 , researchers at the University of California , Davis , unveil another piece of the bottom - sniff puzzle through astudy of 23 domesticated cats . They establish that a cat ’s anal glands are home to a bustling community of bacteria , which are probably involved in the output of smelly anal retentive gland secretions . Different cats had different bacteria in their anal retentive secretor , and the types of bacteria varied with a cat ’s geezerhood and weight status .
More research is required , but the study authors think that these bacteria avail cats communicate . Other carnivores , including dog , are alsothought to communicatevia the secretions of gland - inhabiting bacteria . Supporting this hypothesis , astudy in hyenasfound that bacterium living in their aroma glands produce components of chemic signals that hyaena use to convey .
