I draw water from the tap into bottles that I keep in the fridge. I find doing this lets all the fluoride, chlorine etc evaparorate off and the water tastes fine and is chilled.
Water straight from the tap is often unpleasant IHMO.
Eccles: The taste of chlorine can lessen in the way you describe, but nothing else (apart from dissolved air/oxygen) evaporates - fluoride and other dissolved ions remain in the water.
Matheous: the odour problem may be associated with your own plumbing "issues", rather than the water from the mains. Try running it for some time to see if it improves, or ask a neighbour to try some of theirs - to pinpoint the problem.
wolf: The mains water in Scotland IS some of the best tasting in these islands - which is why I think plumbing issues may be to blame (unsatisfactory materials used, very long runs to the tap, localised warming of the incoming mains supply etc.).
I'm sure I have contacted Scottish Water in the recent past and never even received an acknowledgment email. So there's not much chance of any response to a damp dog smell....Maybe I should consider a bottled brand.