January 13, 2025, 9:01 am | Read time: 4 minutes
If you’re out and about with your four-legged friend after Christmas, it can take longer than usual to walk the route. This is because the discarded Christmas trees on the street seem to exert a magical attraction on dogs. Is this due to the interesting smells, or is there more to the behavior?
At the beginning of January, I suddenly need a lot more time to get to work with my dog, Yumi. This is usually the time when the Christmas trees, which are irresistible to dogs, are disposed of. Sometimes, they spend minutes sniffing and marking. This may not only be due to the smell of “other people’s homes” that the trees carry. In Berlin, there are always household items or boxes on the street with labels like “to give away.” Yumi is usually not interested in these. But the dog regularly sticks to the discarded Christmas trees – and there are various reasons for this.
Trees as Odor Traps
The main reason why discarded Christmas trees are so exciting for our dogs is the smell. Or rather, lots of exciting smells. For one thing, the tree carries the scents from the home it came from. If there are animals such as cats or dogs in the household as well as people, their scents will also cling to the tree.
What’s more, not only our four-legged friends but also other animals find the discarded Christmas trees exciting. It is, therefore, conceivable that foxes and martens will mark the new object with urine or rub against it. But even if they only examine the tree, they leave scent traces on the spot that our dogs can still detect.
Within a short time, a whole potpourri of odors accumulates. For our dogs, the discarded Christmas trees become a real “olfactory highlight.” Some four-legged friends are so engrossed in sniffing that they forget everything around them.
Christmas Trees as a “Bulletin Board”
If you watch your dog closely, you will notice that after sniffing, it is very likely to deposit urine on or near the tree. During this marking behavior, animals leave behind scents – so-called pheromones. These are like a kind of identity card. They contain information about sex, state of health, and readiness to mate. 1
Dogs can “read” all this information from the urine of their conspecifics. They can also tell whether it is a familiar dog from the neighborhood or a new contact. It can often be observed that dogs mark in the vicinity where they have discovered an exciting smell. In this way, the discarded Christmas trees become a “bulletin board” for our dogs, on which the entire animal neighborhood leaves its information. 2
It’s Not Usually Here
Another reason why dogs inspect the many Christmas trees on the street so thoroughly is that they are not usually there. Vigilant breeds like Spitz, in particular, notice immediately when something new appears on paths they are otherwise familiar with. Some four-legged friends also mark objects or things that they found scary beforehand with urine after exploring them. It is assumed that the application of their own scent serves the purpose of recognition. 3
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Conclusion: Disposed Christmas Trees Are Exciting for Dogs
All these factors lead to an accumulation of different odors that exert a magical attraction on dogs. The longer the tree is left lying around, the stronger the effect can become. Once an animal marks the tree, other members of the same species are encouraged to leave their scent or urine there, too.
As a result, a lot of information can be found on and around the discarded Christmas trees, densely packed in one place. For some owners, it is not so easy to persuade a dog that is deeply engrossed in sniffing to move on. But don’t worry: the trees will be gone again in a few weeks. That’s how long you should allow your four-legged friend to have fun and simply plan more time for the trail.