Have you ever come across a wet dog, either from rain or even a pool? Well my experience has not been pleasant as the ones I have come across usually produce some odour wherever they go. However, do we know why this is the case, especially when they did not stink before getting wet? There must be some sort of explanation for this. Right? I mean, I expect that water should a cleaning agent and thus dogs should not stink after interacting with water. I guess I have been wrong and that there is a good reason as to why this is the case.
Dogs are warm blooded. As such, water is expected to evaporate when it gets in contact with the skin of the dog. This might take time and might be physical but it happens. Therefore, when water evaporates from the fur, the compounds within the fur become airborne along with the water molecules that have changed their state to gas or vapor. Therefore, a dog carries a cloud of stink wherever it goes as long as it is wet. 63
When dry, the compounds in the fur remain in a solid state and thus do not get displaced from the fur into the air making it very hard to notice the odour.
One would ask where these smelly compounds in the dog’s fur come from. Well, dogs are usually busy thus making their metabolism rate high. Additionally, they pick up a lot of bacteria and microorganisms in their fur as they play or sleep. These bacteria and yeast that live in the dog’s fur produce smelly and volatile compounds. These bacteria are hard to do away with thus making it obvious for a dog to have the smelly volatile compounds in their furs. Being volatile, it means that these compounds are easily soluble in water. When the water evaporates, it evaporates together with the compound thus making it airborne. This makes it easy to notice the odour from a wet dog as the compounds can easily reach the nose of a person near the do. This phenomenon explains why wet dogs stink. 978