Rolling in something smelly

No, I'm not referring to the recent MCA election results.

My white, gentle female lab-mix who is usually very obedient, clean and docile came home yesterday after a jaunt out smelling like s*&@! I thought I had stepped on some poop or perhaps some animal had died on my car porch. But I could not find the source of the offending smell until my maid yelled that Bonnie (the dog) was a walking smelly-bin!

Yucks! She smelled like poop and a dead animal combined. Really, really disgusting. It reminded me of a dog I had when I was a child. I caught it nosing and pawing at something excitedly. Upon checking, I found that it was a dead rodent of some sort. Before I could do anything, my dog madly and joyfully leapt onto the carcass and rolled vigorously onto it. Then my dog regained her senses and started bounding towards me for a pat. I, of course, ran away from my dog, screaming!

So back to my Bonnie in the present time. The only explanation for her bad smell is that she must have found a carcass outside the house and rolled in it. This is such a weird behaviour of dogs. The general thinking out there is that dogs roll around in a carcass to mask its own scent in order to hunt effectively - in other words, it's instinctive so there's no point punishing your dog for it. The joy of having pets .......