When we take Boots for walks and he has a little sniff we always say
he's reading the newspaper
Emma read something a few weeks ago that was along these lines
To a dog, sniffing a tree stump, a branch on the ground, a shrub, a car tyre, a patch of grass, a piece of paper on the ground, an old wrapper etc, all mean NEWS. They all hold scent and they all hold valuable information as to who, when, where and what and even how often. To a dog, sniffing these things is like reading the daily paper and watching the daily news; it tells them everything.
So we usually let him have a nice sniff so he can consume the news.