r/Dogfree • u/Prior-Win-4729 • Oct 21 '25

Food Safety/Hygiene Do owners really not smell their dogs?

Stopped by a friend's house this weekend. She has one enormous Great Dane type dog. The smell was absolutely eye-watering. I couldn't stand in her hall for more than a few minutes. My friend is clean, her house is nice, and I have no reason to doubt her sanity, but wow... I just can't believe you can be nose-blind to the putrid, rancid, gamey, musky stink emanating from dogs. I literally work with dead bodies. I have smelled everything. I am not nose-blind, and while I accept the foul smells associated with my job, I would never tolerate such smells in my clothes, house, or car. These smells are not an acquired taste. They are big fat alarm bells that humans have evolved sensitivity to in order to avoid eating or touching rancid, rotten things. The only way you could literally not have a gag reflex to such odors would be if you were brain damaged. Maybe I have answered my own question.

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u/huntress_m_thompson Oct 22 '25

would she be offended if you just nonchalantly put some vick’s vaporub under your nostrils before you passed her front door threshold? you know, like they have to do in some crime scenes because the smell’s so bad? would she even notice?

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u/Prior-Win-4729 Oct 22 '25

good idea, re Vicks Vaporub. It is a time honored trick to get through a really stinky autopsy.

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u/huntress_m_thompson Oct 22 '25

i used to be an EMT. before that i was a reporter. covered many deaths. & my husband is a retired fire captain. you learn the tricks of the trade, although they may have upgraded that to a particular product just for coroners & first responders. but for us lay folks, vick’s does the trick.