Why Do Dogs Roll in the Grass?
Chances are that if you have ever walked a dog, or walked alongside someone who is walking their dog, you have seen a dog who is interested in rolling in the grass. It will often sniff the ground with the same intensity as it will do to search for a spot to relieve itself, so you look away for a moment to let your dog do its business only to turn back and see your dog happily rolling in the grass with a massive smile.
As such, you might find yourself wondering why dogs seem to enjoy rolling in the grass as much as they do. In order to fully understand why dogs enjoy rolling in the grass, you first have to have a good sense of why dogs are attracted to certain areas and what dogs consider interesting.
Things that you may think are interesting may not be as fascinating in a dog’s eyes, and the same applies for what the dog finds interesting. Once you have a good sense of what dogs are looking for when you take them outside to a patch of grass, you may have a better understanding of how they can get so much enjoyment out of it.
Dogs and Their Sense of Smell
Most people are well aware of the fact that dogs have a great sense of smell and they use their noses to pick up on everything from where they get their food, to communication between other dogs, and to guide them in their world, as they rely on smells more than sight. Because of this, if a dog smells something new, interesting, or different from the norm in their patch of grass, then they will probably want to investigate it. This is what brings the dog to the patch of grass in the first place, more often than not, is simply the smell of the grass.
For some dogs, they may appreciate the basic smell of the grass and the one particular patch of grass that they want to roll in smells stronger than the rest of the grass. For other dogs, there may be another new smell hidden in that specific patch of grass, such as another animal’s markings, a dead animal, or some discarded food or garbage that someone left behind. As awful as it smells to most people, dogs seem to be drawn to these kinds of unpleasant smells, such as dead animals and dung.
If your dogs feel that they do not smell “good,” they may try to take matters into their own hands, so to speak. With the same mindset that people have when they take a shower with their favorite-scented soap when they smell bad, dogs are going to roll in something new that they think smells good if they do not appreciate the smell of the dog shampoo that you have been using. This is also how it tries to get its favorite smell on itself.
This is one of the reasons, aside from general curiosity, why your dog might choose to roll around in a patch of grass. To try and dissuade this behavior, you will want to try and use new and unscented products to clean your dog with, so that it doesn’t feel that it smells bad from the baths it gets.
A Dog Marking its Territory
Most people are also aware that animals often want to define what parts of the world are their own and fall into the animal’s territory. While dogs do not engage in scent-marking and territory-defining behavior as often as other pets (such as cats) do, they will engage in these behaviors at times. A good example of a dog marking its territory without urination is to roll in the grass. As goofy as it looks when your dog chooses to do it, it is one of the best ways for your dog to mark a patch of grass as its own without urinating to mark the land.
From your dog’s point of view, this behavior helps to rub the dog’s new scent onto all of the grass that it is rolling on. This covers a much wider area of land than simply urinating would. For some dogs, this means that rolling in the grass is going to be a better way for it to show what territory the dog “owns.” This behavior is a lot more likely to appear if you live in an area where a lot of dogs are going to be passing by the same patch of grass.
It may also be a case of the dog trying to mark the territory of something within the grass. Because your dog is claiming the ground all around where the grass is, it could just be rolling over the new thing that it found and is wanting to claim. For some dogs, they could engage in this behavior because they found a stick that they want to keep.
Other dogs may choose to mark their territory over some new garbage that they particularly like. No matter what the dog is trying to claim, rolling around on the grass is a behavior that dogs will use to get the point across about territory.
It Probably Feels Good
Consider all the times that people get back scratches, get back rubs, and get massages around the back. The closest equivalent for this kind of sensation and relief that your dog can get is going to be to roll around on the grass. The grass, the ground underneath the grass, and whatever other objects are in the grass probably have a nice texture for your dog’s back and it can feel something similar to a massage to roll around in that area. As such, some dogs engage in this behavior for no reason other than it simply feeling good.
For some dogs, it can go a little bit further than this. Just as people can have skin irritations from allergies, dogs can as well. It is less common because their coats of fur protect them, but some allergies may lead to itching in dogs anyway.
Because rolling around on the grass tends to feel good in the first place, it can feel especially good for a dog who is trying to scratch an itch. If you know for a fact that your dog experiences seasonal allergies and you see it engaging in this behavior, you may want to talk to your dog’s vet about addressing those allergies and seeing if you can relieve the symptoms of it.
As people, it’s a simple fact that it is near impossible to understand exactly what a dog is feeling. However, knowing that dogs enjoy the scent of grass, dung, and dead animals can show you that your dog may be rolling in the grass for the smell of it alone. Knowing that dogs mark their territory by rolling around with the big grin on their face can help you make sense of their actions because they are simply marking their land without urination.
And finally, knowing that dogs can experience the same type of itchiness as people do during the allergy seasons means that it may make more sense that your dog chooses to roll in the grass to try and alleviate that itching in the only way it knows how. These are the most common reasons why dogs choose to roll in the grass, but the one thing to keep in mind is that your dog is most likely just enjoying itself and expressing that contentedness with its territory in one of the only ways it knows how to do so.
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