[yorkietalkjilly]

Hooray for a great nose that scientists theorize he followed from a familiar, targeted scent around the home & followed it all the way in. Amazing "technology" these little guys have built-in they can use most any time they need. Further away from home, that nose will pick-up scents of other, further-off neighborhood dogs, garbage, pee markings on a tree, fence, etc., and use that to get back closer to a familiar scent from the home. This is why leaving our personal clothing or a favorite toy, bedding outside front and back should he go missing can help him reorient and work his way back.

It's said that scent trails do fade over time so I imagine the more often a dog can get out and around the far neighborhood helps him stay current on denser scents surrounding and near his home and strong scents overlapping those from further off. Some dogs with more sophisticated noses & other on-board navigation tools can use those to find their way home from afar months/years after most home scent & neighborhood trails are thought to have vanished and nobody really understands how.

This navigational awareness and the dog's obvious use of neighborhood scents and sights, perhaps sounds, etc. is another, important reason to allow your dog to stop and sniff, memorize scents and other tools he might use ringing his home and surrounding neighborhood all he wants during his walks. Scents, sights and things he becomes aware of during those walks may one day guide him back home in the awful event he is ever lost.