Dog people are perpetual students with an inherent curiosity, that, and many of us have breeds we wash a lot. That said, here’s an infograph of the science of why wet dogs have that “wet dog” smell. In a nutshell, bacteria and yeast in dog hair are mostly responsible for wet dog smell. humidity of the air around a wet dog also increases and accommodates a higher concentration of pungent molecules. A study conducted several years ago identified the compounds which increased dramatically in concentration when the dog hair was wet. They include almond-like benzaldehyde, honey-like phenylacetaldehyde, fruity acetaldehyde, ‘medicinal’ phenol and 2-methylbutanal, which is described as ‘musty and nutty’. Compounds smelling of feces, sulphur, mushrooms, fruit and earth were also found to increase when dog hair got wet, although not as significantly. Quiz tomorrow.

You can see the image larger here.