Why do dogs roll in dead things?
Hounds will often do this. It’s their way of ‘taking the smell home’ to show to their pack. They think the smell of dung or a corpse is exciting, so by rolling in it they can collect a sample to show their friends, much like people will spray stinky perfumes on themselves in shops and then go home and stick their wrists under other people’s noses. The idea is that other wolves in the pack will know the wolf has found something interesting, and allow it to lead them there. They don’t do it to mask their own smell, because animals that hunt usually do so from a downwind attack angle. After all, if your clothes smell of BO and spray stinky perfume on yourself to mask it, you just end up smelling of BO and stinky perfume. Animals have a more acute sense of smell than humans and can smell through it. This is also why dogs often roll in something and run straight back to their owner — much to his or her disgust.
