I assume there’s a belly nerve that runs down his leg. But does anyone know any more about the mechanics of this? It cracks me up! I know ALL dogs do it, but mine does it the cutest. I also notice that he seems to enjoy having that spot scratched. How come?
-L
I never got it from any official source, but I always equated canine leg-shaking with what would be tickling in humans. Dogs can’t laugh, so, they shake a leg.
NEWS FLASH It was reported today that the laughter-like sound dogs make is in fact, a sound of enjoyment akin to human laughter. Now, if only the news sites would catch up and post these things so I can link to them. grrrr…
I dunno, I always shake my leg like that too, when my wife or her girlfriend rubs my tummy. It just seems natural, like blinking when something’s coming at my eyes. It’s probably a spinal reflex, and unrelated to higher cognitive functioning. If you want, I’ll go to the lab, and cut up some dogs and see what I can find.
When my girlfriend scratches that belly nerve on me, instead of shaking my leg, I get a stiffy.
It’s not anything I can control either, but it happens.
Maybe it’s related.
Oh, it cracks her up too.
Looks like somebody else has the 2001 Far Side calendar. Yesterday’s cartoon dealt with this topic.
Actually, I don’t have a Far Side calendar. So I feel a little under-privileged.
I do, however, have an 8.5 week old black lab puppy that I got Saturday. Maybe it IS tickling him. But humans tend to avoid ticklish sensations, whereas my puppy rolls over and just BEGS to get the leg shake thing going.
I’ll have to try that stiffy thing out on the bf later…
-L
WAG: I believe it is a hard wired response. Deep within the dog R-complex there is probably some set of permenant instructons like this:
I need to jiggle my leg thustly in order to scratch myself.
Hey, I feel a sensation of being scratched, however my leg is not jiggling.
I better start jiggling my leg.
All three of my dogs will do the same thing even if I scratch their backs, so it’s not just the belly. My cats, on the other hand, will not ever mimic scrathcing themselves, no matter if I rub their backs or their bellies. If I am petting the cats’ backs, however, especially near the tail, then I get the rise-up of the cat-butt…AKA “cattatude”.
This just in: My new puppy shakes his little leg when I scratch behind his EAR too! Weird! I bet he’s the only dog EVER to do this. I knew he was the best furry friend in the world and the most unique. My dad says he did that right out of the womb. Weird!
-L
One of my Mom’s cats… Correction, one of the cats which cohabits with my Mom has a birth defect in her back legs which prevents her from scratching herself properly, so she loves it when anyone else scratches the back of her neck for her. When this is done, she invariably reacts by wiggling her leg, as described. I’ve always thought it was the way Attrayant described, that “I’m being scratched, therefore I must be scratching”.
I like Attreyant’s answer. Dogs are stoooooopid .
Well, re: the cat thing… we had a cat that, if you scratched a certain spot on HIS back,he would start to lick himself. Damnedest thing I ever saw…
More on cats…
If you scratch my cat’s ears just right, she’ll dance and kick her leg just like a dog. It’s pretty darn funny.
I sent a note to my sister, the Vet:
Her response:
There you have it.
bitches be doing that jive.
Must post pictures.
Seeing as the puppy is over 10 years old now, it may not be as cute as you hope.
I, for one, am disappointed that I wasn’t around to enjoy the name ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks.
And I hereby challenge [name redacted] to make a good zombie joke…but NOT the obvious one!
-D/a
Zombie bitches be all about the belly scratching.
Quite similar to regular bitches, when it comes right down to it.