Dogs have an excellent sense of smell and perfumes can distress them.
Dogs have an excellent sense of smell and perfumes can distress them. AFP

No need to wrestle your dog into the bath anymore. Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has launched a new perfume for canine companions.

The "alcohol-free scented mist for dogs" is on sale for 99 euros and comes with a free collar -- but also a warning from animal rights activists, who say it could cause pets distress.

"I am delicate, authentic, charismatic, sensitive," the video advertising the scent begins as it shows sleek and soft Bichon Frises, Dachshunds and Chihuahuas posing on a stool.

"Cause I'm not just a dog, I'm Fefe," it ends.

The perfume is named after the dog of the brand's co-founder Domenico Dolce and blends "fresh and delicate notes" of ylang ylang, musk, and sandalwood.

"It's a tender and embracing fragrance crafted for a playful beauty routine," the company said.

But international animal rights charity PETA said "squirting (dogs) with a fragrance designed to please humans, as this is, can upset them greatly."

Dogs "have hundreds of millions more receptors in their nostrils and can smell 10,000 to 100,000 times better than humans," PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement to AFP.

Perfumes sprayed on their fur "can cause them irritation and distress and interfere with their ability to detect other smells in their environment and communicate with other animals they encounter," she said.