Do "perfumy" smells bother dogs?

All I know is that after my old dog was groomed and smelling pretty perfumy the youngster would jump on her as if she didn't recognize the alpha. Then she was put into place immediately. It is pretty amazing how perfume can throw off a dog.

I have always wondered about that too.

I have a pretty good sense of smell (what DH refers to as the "Hannah Super Sniffer") and a lot of artificial smells give both me and my sister headaches. I have to be really careful picking beauty products and detergents.

I've always thought that if those things bothered me, they'd have to at least be extremely noticeable to dogs when their sense of smell is SO much better than ours.

I always decline the "doggy colognes" and stuff when offered and try to bathe the dogs in low perfume products. I can't help but think that some of the stuff people spray on their dogs has got to smell pretty overwhelming for them - not delightful like, say, essence of dead squirrel, or something they might chose to wear.

I am sure that all this stuff affects them. And I'm sure that things like aromatherapy work on dogs, which would just emphasize that they are sensitive to smells.

I never thought about the smells throwing off their interactions with other dogs, similar to the way that docked tails do. Interesting.