Rolling in Bugs

Brandon and I started noticing that Bailey was behaving very oddly several months ago. It was like she had this irresistible urge to throw her body onto the ground and roll in the grass after smelling it. After thinking she was just weird for several weeks, she kept doing it, more and more frequently. We actually found it quite entertaining, being that it was so random and sudden when we were out for a walk.

Brandon came up with this crazy theory about it being her way of throwing off her scent. Whatever. He always has these theories for things. Then he looked closer. She would collapse onto the spot where a dead bug was down deep in the grass. Gross. So he researched it. Why is my dog freakishly rolling her body into dead bugs?!? Lo and behold, he was right. As Brandon predicted, it is a hunting instinct. As Anabelle the dog blogger explains, they "roll in smelly stuff as a way to inform their fellow pack members of new game or intruders in their territory or they do it to conceal their odor while hunting making it all the better to sneak up on those nasty little squirrels and chipmunks". So there you have it. She's just a good ole hound dog with a superactive smeller. But it really is so odd...



I finally captured this on video for you to enjoy!