Cold, Wet Noses and Its Connection to a Dog’s Hypersensitivity to Sounds
If your doodle reacts to
- every
- little
- sound
around the house, I’ll challenge most of you to check their noses and mouths, and to think about Nature and how Nature has wild animals behave in the wild. They’re usually connected.
Dog are born with cold, wet noses. When the nose is wet, the nasal passages are wet. The wetness in the nasal passages capture scent particles and the nose works. If a nose is dry, it can’t capture scent particles and the nose stops working.
Here’s the thing: when the nose stops working in an adult dog, Nature responds with, “I can’t have a dog without its sense of smell, so I’ll make its hearing hypersensitive to make up for the loss of the nose!”
Then, with its hearing hypersensitive, EVERYTHING gets over-reacted to. That’s—literally—the wild dog showing up, and you know how well THAT goes. There’s where all of the problems start showing up, too. Your doodle becomes, literally, an out of control, wild dog. Your dog’s just fulfilling Nature’s plan, but it’s a plan that’s not good for your home’s peace and quiet.
Getting their nose to return to being cold and wet is one of two things that’s needed. Getting there takes time, effort, and lots and lots of patience—more than what we’re used to having to show.
RELAXED, OPEN MOUTH BREATHING
Meanwhile, in addition to their cold, wet noses that need to be present, there’s also their relaxed, open mouth breathing. Dogs with closed mouths are telling us something.
Dogs are born with relaxed, open mouth breathing. Not “panting” because that comes from exercise and exertion. Relaxed, open mouth breathing comes from… well… relaxation. Here’s a video showing how Lucas, a yellow lab, goes from showing a closed mouth to showing relaxed, open mouth breathing in less than a minute:
If Nature needs Her dogs to have a relaxed, open mouth breathing but they’re not there yet, we have to change things to get them there, voluntarily. It’s something that can’t be forced, it can’t be coerced, and it takes lots and lots of patience to get them to where it happens naturally.
You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive doodle with a cold, wet nose and relaxed, open mouth breathing. Not “panting,” which comes from exercise, exertion, or stress, but relaxed, open mouth breathing, 75-85% of its waking hours. Once you have them there, keep them there.
When dogs are relaxed and voluntarily submissive, their problems go away. Getting them to be relaxed and voluntarily submissive is what I love to do.
Respectfully submitted.
Doug Parker