Maggie did the unthinkable just the other day.
We took her on a marvelous hike to an open pasture about an hour away, to Mt.Burdell Open Space in Marin County. It was a warm spring day, the grass was greener than ever and we saw cows grazing in the distance.
There are some paths there called ''fire roads'' that dogs can go off leash on, so I decided to let her free. As soon as I let her off leash she runs over to a fresh puddle of cow manure and DIVES into it, rolling in it a few times. I watched in shock and horror but not being able to do anything about it. Her sides and harness were covered in brown-greenish manure with the stink emanating as she trotted along happily.
This happened in the first 30 minutes of what would become a 3 hour trek, and all I could think about was getting to the nearest water source and throwing her into it to clean the manure off.
Unfortunately there was no creek or lake on the entire trek.
Hours later we ended up at the nearest Pet Food Express store to hose her down.
After this hike, I couldn't stop asking "What prompted her to roll in cow manure????"
So I looked online and they have several explanations about why dogs roll in stinky stuff:
1. to cover up their own smell to hunt for prey;
2. to communicate to other dogs that they have found something special;
3. they love stink
None of these explanations really help me accept her rolling in dead animals and poop, but it is part of her instinct and makes her happy. I guess I will just leave it at that.
