Spring and summer so far have been exceptionally wet here in Maine. It’s starting to make us all a little nutty. Regardless of the weather, our dogs still need to run around and go for walks. A few days ago I took our dogs for a walk in the pouring rain. When I returned my youngest daughter commented on the smell of our wet dogs. Of course, that prompted her sister to then say “why are they so stinky?” 

Once again, my daughters raised a question that I’ve never thought about. I’ve just always accepted that wet dogs are smelly dogs. As one does when a child asks “why are wet dogs stinky?” I turned to YouTube. Sure enough, I quickly found a SciShow Kids video that addresses that very question. 

Why Are Wet Dogs Smelly? does a nice job of explaining to elementary school students that a dog’s fur is home to a lot of microbes that become easier for humans to smell when a dog gets wet and then shakes his or her fur.