When it comes morning greetings, I can identify with something the late Christopher Hichens said: “How ya doin’?’ I always think, What kind of a question is that?, and I always reply, ‘A bit early to tell.” 

I asked my wife that question one morning recently, “Just getting awake,” she answered, and I immediately wondered why I had asked her, for I know it takes a while for us to know how we’re doing.

Not so for my Schnauzers. If I ever need a cheery greeting that jump-starts my endorphins, I can always depend on my two Schnauzers, Max and Baylor. 

As reliable as a morning factory whistle, Max will begin barking at approximately 6:40 a.m. I’m usually up a good while before then, so I wait in anticipation. He never fails. 

I hustle up the stairs and into the bedroom, where they are waiting in their crate. “Are you ready to go outside?” I’ll ask, as if I need to know.

Max is the first to bolt out, but Baylor is right behind him. You would have thought they had won the lottery, and I was the bearer of the good news. 

Max hops up and down, wagging his tail, while Baylor runs toward the stairs, then reverses course, running back to me, like the guy who almost forgot to kiss his beloved before leaving on a long journey. Baylor practically leaps into my arms while Max stretches toward me with his front legs, like he is trying to hug me with his paws reaching around my back. It’s like I’ve returned from a long absence, and we are at last reunited. It’s the same, exact routine each day.

I can heighten their enthusiasm even more by asking, “Are you happy today? Do you want me to rub your back?” I’m on the ground with them, and what follows is a dog and man love fest, with me rolling around with them.

That lasts a couple of minutes, then I’ll say, “Let’s go outside,” and down the stairs and to the door they race.

Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t have a little more morning-Schnauzer in me. 

How do they do it? I looked in their crate, they aren’t hiding a coffee pot that could get them going; neither are there any Dale Carnegie books on how to make friends; and they harbor no doggie motivational films on how to please an owner.

It all has to do with smell.

I’ve read where scientists have done brain scans on dogs while they were exposed to the scent of their owners. The researchers found that the areas for happiness in the brain spiked in activity when this happened. It’s related to the way dogs remember. While dogs may have some degree of episodic memory—that is, the ability to remember something in the past—dogs remember more by associative memory. Dogs remember people, places, and experiences based on associations they have with them. Studies have shown what you probably have observed if you are around dogs. They are strongly affected by smell. A dog’s sense of smell helps them recognize and “remember” their owner.

So, I suppose my dogs’ strong sense of smell awakens them to the fact that I’m downstairs and that my scent is associated with my letting them out to play, potty, and then eat. 

So, maybe I’m not too far off the mark in my morning routine. Though I may creak like the Tin Man needing a quart of oil, I have enough sense to go to God’s Word. I begin to awaken, at least spiritually and mentally, by meditating on it early on in my morning ritual. And it affects me in a positive way. 

The Apostle Paul told the Christians in Corinth they were “the aroma of Christ to God.” I suppose God’s Word activates our spiritual pheromones. 

Christopher Hitchens was right: it may be a bit early to tell how I’m doing. Just let me bathe in God’s Word first, then come back in a bit, and if you don’t sense that I’m as happy as a Schnauzer, I hope you can at least smell the perfume of Christ in the air.  

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