Our dog is a small little guy, maybe 12 pounds tops. He is a Godknowswhat and Poodle mix, we think. He has been neutered and he is cute as he can be. But, he has recently taken up a particular behavior that is totally new and utterly baffling.
When we take him walking, he stops, sniffs, and pees about every five to six feet that we travel. But, he has now located a few places where he shoves his nose into the grass and roots around for a minute or so before peeing and then he scratches the grass with his rear feet while making some serious growling noises. He gets quite involved in this little endeavor and usually barks and snarls very seriously before he loses interest and continues walking. It’s funny to watch but we don’t have a clue as to his motivation. As far as we can tell, there are no differences between spots where he performs his little trick and spots where he doesn’t.
Anyone have any guesses as to what the hell our dog is doing?
This reminds me of a TV show on one of the channels here that basically is dedicated to pets with weird habits. Perhaps the most adorable was a corgie that would, when taken out for a walk, shove his nose (very forcibly) into every single drainage pipe along the route. But he would only shove his nose into those drainage pipes. These are small pipes located every meter or so apart along concrete or stone support walls to provide drainage. No other pipes or holes interested him. When confronted with a pipe the same size, but not stuck in a wall, he ignored it completely.
Yep, it’s a marking behavior. My big male hound does that a lot, and if he happens to see another dog on a walk, he’ll be extra forcible about it. He’s kind of a jerk like that.
Another vote for marking. Bitz the Wondermutt will leave a urinary message every few yards and sniff attentively on likely rocks and bushes. We call it checking her pee mail.
My girl-dog does this, too. Very joyously, actually. She seems incredibly happy to pee, and then kick up dirt around the pee. I’m quite sure she’s territory-marking.
Thanks for all the replies. I hadn’t considered territory marking mostly because our little dog is just so damn small; it’s hard to think that he considers himself big and bad enough to even have a territory. Outside our house, that is. Inside the house, he rules the roost so maybe he is getting a little bit overconfident.
treis, there is a dog the very sight of whom seems to enrage our dog. That other dog is a large, black, long haired dog who seems to posses a good sense of humor about it. And he is a good dog; he’s friendly, playful, and well trained. I guess one day my shrimp of a dog might push him too far but so far he’s been lucky.
I’ve also heard something about there being glands in the feet that secrete pheromones and that’s why some dogs do the foot thing, kicking the ground around…this may be cats I’m thinking though…
As a (previous [don’t worry, he’s still alive after 14-15 years, just living with mom and dad ever since I moved out of country]) owner of the world’s most adorable Papillon, I can assure you that tiny dogs often do not realize/do not care how small they are. I read a book once that spoke in length about the Papillon’s “delusions of grandeur.” In their minda, they’re every bit as fierce and massive as the Great Danes and Newfoundlands of the world. Bandit would often try to pick fights with our Rough Collie, luckily she was a gentle and understanding bitch.
So true. My Boston terrier is blessed with a Napoleon complex as well. He’s pretty good-natured about though and most big dogs respond well to him. But if they show any annoyance at all to his antics, he flips right over on his back in the submissive position. He’s a lover, not a fighter, I guess.
We aren’t really sure about his age since he is a rescue dog. The SPCA listed him as “about” four years old when we got him, which would make him “about” seven now. When we got him, he was very shy and timorous; I couldn’t pick up a newspaper without the poor guy cowering. Same thing if I tried to pat his head. If my Darling Marcie was upstairs and I had to raise my voice to call her, the dog went into obvious distress. So, we think he might have been abused before we got him. But he sure isn’t abused now; he is now one of the happiest dogs I’ve ever seen and instead of being frightened by strangers, he considers everyone he meets to be his best friend, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. He is certainly more assertive than when we got him so you make a very good point: he is just learning that it is okay to do some things he wasn’t allowed to do previously.
He is both our child and our grandchild, neither of which we posses in real life.
Can I just say thanks to you and yours for being the kind of people to love a dog enough to turn it from abused and emotionally battered to happy-go-lucky and brimming with life. That is a beautiful thing. You clearly rock.
