Have you ever noticed while walking a dog that they stop and sniff every tree, bush, and poo pile? And when two dogs come together, they sniff each other’s butts (a distinctly rude activity, if you ask me!)
I have a theory – dogs sniff each other’s butts because they’ve sniffed the pee patches and poo piles and want to know if those anonymous leavings are from the the dog they’ve just run into.
If they are, it must be somewhat akin to meeting in real life someone you’ve only known in a chat room or forum – DonkyKongSr or spiffalicious71. I wonder if the dogs think “hey! That was a really funny message you left!” or “man! You’re a jerk – I should bite your face off” when they come across the leaver of the scent.
And how disappointed must dogs be when the only way they ever hear back from another dog is when they pee on the same spot and they can tell that spiffalicious71 has come by again. Must be the canine equivalent of phone tag – but with eau d’ammonia instead of voices.