The World Beneath Their Paws

Could contact with living soil matter for your dog’s skin, immunity and microbiome?

Healthy soil is a living ecosystem filled with bacteria, fungi, minerals, roots, moisture, scents and an extraordinary world of sensory stimulation.

Every time a dog runs through woodland, rolls in grass or buries their nose in the ground, their paws, skin, coat, nose and mouth are all interacting with that world.

Perhaps that contact matters more than we realise.

The soil–microbiome connection 🌱

Research in dogs has found that living environment and lifestyle can influence the microbes found on their skin.

In one study of 169 dogs, dogs living more rural lifestyles had very different skin microbial communities from dogs living in more urban environments. Even more interestingly, allergic symptoms were associated with lifestyle and environment, with the lowest prevalence seen among dogs living more rural lives with greater animal and environmental contact.

This wasn’t an isolated finding.

A much larger Finnish study involving 5,722 dogs also found allergic symptoms were much more common in urban environments, while rural living and factors such as regular contact with other animals and soil were associated with a lower risk of allergic symptoms.

This does not mean a muddy walk is a cure for allergies. But it does tell us something fascinating:

the environment a dog lives in is part of its biology.

There is a growing interest in the canine gut microbiome. Diet remains hugely important, but lifestyle, environment, animal contact and other external exposures are increasingly being considered as part of a much bigger microbial picture.

To us = soil. To a dog it’s information 👃

A patch of woodland floor that looks completely ordinary to us can contain an entire story for a dog.

Another animal may have crossed there earlier. Rain changes the moisture and scent of the earth. Fungi, roots and plant material lie beneath the leaves. Insects, decomposing vegetation and hundreds of scent molecules create layers of information that a dog can detect far better than we ever could.

This is why sniffing, digging, rooting and investigating should not automatically be treated as annoying behaviours to stop.

There may be prey scent beneath the surface. An interesting root. A cool patch of earth. Or perhaps your dog is simply enjoying one of the most natural forms of enrichment and sensory stimulation available to them.

What about grounding? ⚡🌍

This is where things become even more interesting from a holistic perspective.

Grounding, or earthing, is the idea that direct physical contact with the Earth allows the body to interact with its natural electrical charge.

The Earth’s surface carries an electrical potential, and grounding advocates propose that direct contact with soil, grass or sand allows electrical exchange between the Earth and the body.

Human grounding research has reported interesting findings involving sleep, stress, pain, inflammation and circulation, and the subject has developed a considerable following within integrative and holistic health.

And dogs present an especially interesting thought:

they don’t wear shoes.

Their paw pads naturally meet grass, soil, sand and earth — whereas much of modern canine life is now spent on laminate, tiles, concrete, asphalt and artificial grass.

Have we underestimated the value of simply allowing animals to remain physically connected with the Earth?

Their bodies move differently outdoors🐾

Natural ground offers something pavement cannot.

Roots. Slopes. Mud. Stones. Soft soil and grass.

Every few steps, a dog must alter paw placement, balance and body position.

A woodland walk is therefore not simply exercise measured in kilometres. It offers changing textures, scents, gradients, surfaces and decisions.

When dogs are able to move freely in a safe natural space, they can choose their own pace, stop to investigate scents, change direction, climb, sniff, explore and engage with the environment in a way that a straightforward pavement walk on a short lead simply cannot reproduce.

That combination of movement, scent, choice and sensory stimulation is part of what makes natural spaces so enriching.

Some animals even eat the earth 🍴

The deliberate consumption of soil is called geophagy, and it occurs throughout the animal kingdom.

Dogs sometimes do it too.

From a zoopharmacognosy and animal self-selection perspective, it is an intriguing behaviour. Animals have interacted with soils, clays, minerals, roots and plants for far longer than humans have been producing commercial supplements.

That does not mean every dog eating dirt is intelligently prescribing itself a mineral remedy. Persistent soil-eating can have behavioural, gastrointestinal, nutritional or medical causes and deserves attention.

Geophagy is another reminder that the relationship between animals and the earth is older and more complex than we sometimes imagine.

Not every patch of ground is equal 🟰 

Healthy woodland, meadow and untreated soil are very different from ground contaminated with faeces, pollutants, pesticides, herbicides or other potentially harmful chemicals.

And dogs have unusually intimate contact with whatever is beneath them.

They walk on it.
They sniff it.
They dig in it.
They lie on it.
They roll in it.
Then they lick their paws.

That is one reason caring for our natural spaces matters — not only for wildlife and ourselves, but for the companion animals sharing those environments with us.

Wellbeing beyond the bowl 🥣 

We spend enormous amounts of time asking:

What should my dog eat?
Which supplement should I use?
Which ingredient is best?

Those questions matter enormously.

But perhaps we should also be asking:

What are they walking on?
What are they smelling?
What are they allowed to explore?
How much time do they spend on real earth?
How much of the natural world is still part of their everyday life?

At Bailey’s Botanicals, we believe canine wellbeing extends beyond the bowl.

It is one of the reasons nature, provenance and the way plants are grown matter so much to us. This is why we only choose organic botanical ingredients for our products. 

Because a dog is not separate from its environment.

And there may be far more happening beneath their paws than we ever realised. 

 

Dominic Finnegan I Founder.                                       Bailey’s Botanicals                                                               Rich in Nature. Designed for Dogs