Why dogs stick their heads out of car windows

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Why dogs stick their heads out of car windows

Have you ever wondered why dogs put their heads out of car windows? Watch this video and learn more about this common behaviour.

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercises. Remember you can read the transcript at any time.

For dogs too, getting out and about excites their wild senses. And for such intelligent animals, you can’t beat a road trip. While we are obsessed with visual landmarks, they focus only on scents. We have a measly six million smell receptors, but a dog’s nose contains 300 million.

They use it to unravel stories about the world around them. Predictably, most are about food.

Forty times more of their brain than ours is devoted to deciphering smells.

They home in on those with special significance. A single chemical aldehyde found in blood makes this one-time hunter drool.

There is a way to bring their smelly world to life. Schlieren photography visualises the air currents that carry odours and shows the remarkable workings of a dog’s nose. Dogs breathe out through the side slits in their nostrils. As the expelled air rotates, it helps draw more scent into the nose. This two-way current helps a dog gather scent almost continuously. But that’s not all.

A male can smell a female in heat at concentrations of one part in a trillion.

Licking helps capture more of her alluring scent. His tongue takes the odour to a second smell organ in the mouth, hardwired to the brain and tuned to these sexual pheromones. It’s love at first sniff.

For dogs, being a passenger rivals any wild experience, but it can be tinged with disappointment too.

The streets of Paris may be full of romantic promise, but pet dogs are seldom in control of their destiny.

Love may be in the air, but it’s so rarely fulfilled.

Why dogs stick their heads out of car windows

You are here

Why dogs stick their heads out of car windows

Have you ever wondered why dogs put their heads out of car windows? Watch this video and learn more about this common behaviour.

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercises. Remember you can read the transcript at any time.

For dogs too, getting out and about excites their wild senses. And for such intelligent animals, you can’t beat a road trip. While we are obsessed with visual landmarks, they focus only on scents. We have a measly six million smell receptors, but a dog’s nose contains 300 million.

They use it to unravel stories about the world around them. Predictably, most are about food.

Forty times more of their brain than ours is devoted to deciphering smells.

They home in on those with special significance. A single chemical aldehyde found in blood makes this one-time hunter drool.

There is a way to bring their smelly world to life. Schlieren photography visualises the air currents that carry odours and shows the remarkable workings of a dog’s nose. Dogs breathe out through the side slits in their nostrils. As the expelled air rotates, it helps draw more scent into the nose. This two-way current helps a dog gather scent almost continuously. But that’s not all.

A male can smell a female in heat at concentrations of one part in a trillion.

Licking helps capture more of her alluring scent. His tongue takes the odour to a second smell organ in the mouth, hardwired to the brain and tuned to these sexual pheromones. It’s love at first sniff.

For dogs, being a passenger rivals any wild experience, but it can be tinged with disappointment too.

The streets of Paris may be full of romantic promise, but pet dogs are seldom in control of their destiny.

Love may be in the air, but it’s so rarely fulfilled.

Safety Tips for Dogs & Open Car Windows

Dogs and open car windows seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. But why do dogs stick their heads out of car windows, anyway? And as much as they love doing it, should you let them? Here’s what you should know as a pet parent.

Why Do Dogs Stick Their Heads Out of Car Windows?

The Smells

The primary reason dogs love hanging out of car windows has to do with their sense of smell. Mental Floss points out that a large dog has over 225 million olfactory receptors, compared to some 5 million in the human nose. Smelling is the main way dogs are able to sense the world around them. As air rushes by while you drive down the highway, it carries and intensifies scents that tell your pooch where they are and where they’re going.

Sensory Stimulation

Dogs likely enjoy the full combination of smells, sights, sounds and feelings that they experience when they hang their heads out of car windows, says The Dodo. Just as people crave sensory stimulation, dogs get a thrill out of all of the different sensations that sticking their heads out of windows brings: The wind and sun on their fur, the sounds of air and cars whooshing by, other people and pets in their cars, there’s so much to experience!

Why Dogs and Open Car Windows Shouldn’t Mix

As much as your dog might love it, the fact is that it’s not safe to let your dog stick their head out of your car window. Pet Health Network points out the potential for serious and even fatal injury should something like a rock or insect strike your dog at high speed. If an object hits your dog’s eye, it could injure their cornea and cause permanent blindness. Foreign objects can also end up in a dog’s nose or ears, causing breathing or hearing problems. What’s more, Trips With Pets adds that your dog’s ears flapping in the wind and against their head can cause their ears to swell and, over time, could cause lasting damage.

But even if you’re just driving around the neighborhood at a low speed, it’s still not safe to let your dog hang their head out of the car window. There’s a chance they could fall or jump out. And, if your dog isn’t safely secured, they’re far more likely to get injured if you get into an accident or if you have to brake suddenly.

How to Keep Your Dog Safe While Driving

The safest way to drive with your dog is to secure them in a crate in the backseat. If this isn’t possible, buckle them into a doggy car seat or a seat belt harness made for dogs. If you drive an SUV or a minivan, use a pet barrier to keep them secured in the back. Never allow your dog to ride in the bed of a pickup truck, where they’re not contained at all.

Keeping your dog secured when you drive with them is the safest choice for everyone. They won’t run the risk of getting injured by a flying object, and they’re less likely to distract you while you’re driving. Plus, your pooch will still enjoy the ride — keeping a car window cracked will still allow plenty of smells in for them to enjoy.

Keep your pooch buckled up on car rides so that they can savor sights, smells and sounds for years to come and enjoy all the fun that awaits them.

Contributor Bio

Jean Marie Bauhaus

Jean Marie Bauhaus is a pet parent, pet blogger and novelist from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she usually writes under the supervision of a lapful of furbabies.

Why do dogs stick their heads out car windows?

ABC News: Simon Royal

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Have you ever wondered why dogs love poking their heads out of car windows? The answer, according to Adelaide zoologist Chris Daniels, is much more interesting than «because they can».

ABC Open: Pete and Lee

«We need to remember that a dog’s head is this incredible sensory apparatus,» said Professor Daniels, from the University of South Australia.

«They smell so much better than we do, in that their sense of smell is much greater than we have, and they have good vision.

«Their head is jam-packed full of sensors, so when they stick their head out the window, they’ve got this great pressure of air moving at great speed over them, and it’s a sensory overload.»

Professor Daniels said every time a dog stuck its head out of a moving car window, it was evidence of its adventurous and opportunistic nature.

«There’s one thing that’s really become apparent over the last 20 years about a great many species, and not just mammals, and that is they like to have fun,» he said.

«They like joy … they like great feelings and experiences that make them feel good.»

ABC News: Haidarr Jones

Not all dogs like sticking their head out the window

Dogs, of course, have their individual tastes.

Professor Daniels said some liked to open their mouths so the wind could flap their jowls around. Others go with a more discreet, closed mouth.

And a few dogs prefer not to poke their head out the window at all.

Professor Daniels said he believed that was one of the best insights of all into a dog’s world.

ABC Kimberley: Ben Collins

«They are not solely driven by needs. So it is not all about food, or water, or sex, or innate behaviours,» he said.

«This is something that a dog chooses to do, or not to do, and it does it for no other reason than it feels good, so in that sense, they are like us … they can do things for the love of it.»

But that can lead, so to speak, to other less desirable human-like behaviours — dogs can get hooked on the feeling.

«They can have an addiction sort of issue as well,» Professor Daniels said.

«They get used to it, they love it, they want to keep doing it, sometimes to the point where some dogs get anxious if you don’t wind down the window.

«They’ll get into the car and demand the window comes down, so they can get this fix of great sensory overload.»

Why Do Dogs Stick Their Heads Out Car Windows & Is It Dangerous?

If you own a dog, you undoubtedly know how much canines love sticking their head out of the window of a moving car. Unlike cats who cower under the seats begging for the nightmare to end, pooches plainly procure pleasure from feeling the fast-moving flurry of air against their furry faces.

So why exactly do dogs derive such ecstasy from leaning out of the car? Science actually has the answer.

Understanding Dogs Riding in Cars: The Nose Knows

The vast majority of veterinarians and researchers agree that dogs get a natural “high” from the abundance of smells that can be perceived from cars; just think about how many smells are in the air in a thirty-second time frame from a moving vehicle vs. standing on the ground. Plus, the force at which the moving air enters the dog’s nostrils can make the scents more intense.

Dogs have far more olfactory receptors than humans do, so a primary way they experience the world is through scent. Thus, getting out of the stagnant, familiar house and being bombarded with numerous new scents can lead to a real “trip” for dogs.

It also gives pups a chance to cool off if the car is too warm and stuffy for them.

Unfortunately, as much as dogs love getting high off smelling the passing world face-first, allowing a dog’s head to be exposed on the road can be dangerous.

• Branches, road signs, or other debris could collide with the animal’s head.
• The dog might feel the impulse to jump from a moving car and into traffic.
• The car tires could kick up stones or hazardous objects that could hit their face or be ingested.
• Fast air travelling into the lungs or ears–or whipping the ears around–could cause bodily damage.
• If a dog has allergies, the odor intensity and force could trigger a reaction.

A safer alternative is just to crack the window open enough for the canine to squeeze its nose through the crack. That way the head remains safely in the car while the pup still gets a chance to breathe in some new odors at a moderate pace.

Cats, on the other hand, are far too intelligent to stick their heads out of moving vehicles that are most likely headed to the vet–so say cat owners, at least.

The News Wheel is a digital auto magazine providing readers with a fresh perspective on the latest car news. We’re located in the heart of America (Dayton, Ohio) and our goal is to deliver an entertaining and informative perspective on what’s trending in the automotive world. See more articles from The News Wheel.