The 1 Thing Every Dog Owner Should Do With Their Pet On A Walk

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.

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.

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

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

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.

“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.

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.

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

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.

Sniffing is good for your dog’s health.

“Sniffing has so