I have a 10 month old Bull/English Mastiff puppy. He's about the size of a full grown husky, maybe a little bigger. All legs. About what you'd expect from a Mastiff. For the last couple weeks he's smelt of maple. We're not too concerned but it is a little odd. We did visit my in-laws and they've got a maple tree in the back so it could be because he rubbed on it but I believe that he's been smelling of maple longer than that. I don't remember though.

He was just at the vet for his shots this past weekend. I forgot to mention it but the vet didn't really mention it either. The vet did get up close and personal with Achilles (His Heal isn't his weakness though) while taking his temperature rectally. That was some good comedy! Taking a 105lbs dog's temperature with a rectal thermometer.

Any thoughts? As I said we're not really concerned but it just struck us as odd.

We have a lot,of maple trees on our property and they don't exzude any substance from the bark, so I can't imagine Achilles would have got the scent from that. Has he been into any syrup ?

Not that I know of. We don't generally keep maple syrup on hand despite being above the 49th parallel. :-)

In my googling I have found that there are some herbs, fenugreek for example, that could cause this if he came in contact with it, but I don't think we have much or any on the property. That being said, in areas it is REALLY overgrown so it is possible I suppose. I am more worried about a metabolic disorder. Most of what I have read so far is that it's either a contact smell or we're just lucky and it's produced.

Call the breeder and see if they can shed some light on this. Maybe the scent is particular to the breed. Stranger things have happened !

If you are worried about a metabolic disorder, the scent would be coming from his pores, stronger around his belly where there is less hair. I think you had better do some serious sniffing. If you find it isn't stronger there, you will know it isn't metabolic and just a scent that has been transferred to his hair.

Well if the dog came into contact with a maple tree.. and now smells like maple.. chances are the sap got onto the dogs hair. Have you tried giving him a bath?

Smelling like maple is not a medical condition.. I seriously wouldn't be worried about it and I doubt a vet would even mention it.