How dogs get to know your dog: by contact through the nose

When two dogs meet for the first time, they will make their reciprocal introducing by using their noses. Both get closer and smell each other till their noses touch. Then they smell and test to see if they relate. After this smell control, either a friendly or a rejecting attitude appears. Anthologists call this greeting a "nasal contact".

And for this recognition process, to develop adequately, its necessary for dogs to be normal and have a healthy relationship with other dogs. A dogs' owner needs to accustom it from the time when it's a puppy, to learn how to act in these encounters.

Now, if you avoid encounters and therefore your dog isn't coming in contact with other dogs it won't be strange but later on it will resist meeting others. These dogs fearfully reject nasal contact and smelling, or start barking and growling.

You should let puppies come in contact with almost all dogs; danger is minimal. Of course not all adult dogs are friendly with puppies. In these case you need to get information about this before a negative experience happens at a decisive age.

Communication through the sense of smell