That is nuts. I too think it has something to do with herding dogs, but why wouldn't a herding dog also be terrified of the scent of beef and veal and such?

I wonder what kind of dogs terrapin has, that they loved the scent of the lamb and were salivating?

How very peculiar. I've never heard of this before.

I had a cat, Barry, who loved lamb. Once, I had a leg of lamb that I'd defrosted for Sunday lunch and I decided to took it very, very slowly, Kleftiko-style, in a low oven. Several hours later, the house was filled with the delicious smell of the lamb.

And Barry, who'd could smell the meat too, was absolutely demented, running round, meowing, drooling. And you should have seen the look on his face when all he got for his dinner was cold cat food from a can, not the hot roast lamb he'd been anticipating...

terrapin (and turtlegirl) have Boston terriers, ico.

That is so weird!

Also, damn, I'm hungry.

Something similar happened when I was a kid in the backyard listening to this on my boombox. The extended keyboard solo had my dog barking angrily at the sky. No shit.

i feel so bad for your dog right now.

My cat used to flip out whenever I listened to The Downward Spiral. Ears back, swatting at anybody who came near her, etc etc. Poor thing did not enjoy the early 90s at all.

Aw, now I want an answer to this -- it's really piqued my curiosity. Maybe a vet professional or biologist knows?

I wonder if there's similarities to goats' muscle tissue and dogs', and that they think that somewhere dogs are frying. I don't agree with the herding theory, because evolution of that scale would take an incredibly long time (even with controlled breeding). It would imply that, universally, dogs who weren't averse to the smell of cooked lamb meat weren't bred. I doubt the breeders understood genetics enough to know to wait for just the right mutation which would cause a dog to freak out.

Not to mention that if you herd sheep you presumably cook lamb yourself on occasion.