That wet dog smell

Scientists have studied how and why dogs — and other animals — shake when they are wet.

Read the story and watch the video from ABC News.

They discovered that the smaller the animals, the faster they must generally shake to dry themselves off.

David Hu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said the research is interesting because drying wet fur is critical to how mammals regulate heat.

"A lot of animals have developed fur mostly for thermal insulation purposes and they need special mechanisms to basically get the water off," he said.

Hu said a standard 60-pound dog would have to spend a quarter of its daily calories getting rid of water if it had to rely only on evaporation. Smaller animals would have to use even more.

Why do this type of research you ask? Watch the video and find out. Oh, and read the comments. They're fun.