help me decode this behavior

edited June 2013 in Behavior & Training
Saru takes it upon himself to sample Ciqala's urine. He literally looks like hes doing a wine tasting. Any one else's intact males do this or have a clue what this is about?

Comments

  • I have no idea, but one of my aunts has an intact male dog that would do that. He would usually do it if the female was coming into heat, though--drape himself down on the ground and lick the pee spot with an almost distant expression.
  • He's testing to see if she's in estrus or not.
  • Goro does this with ChoCho pee. It's gross and I usually pull him away.
  • edited June 2013
    Matsu began doing this a month ago- mostly to Reilly, though- not Juno. He's pretty discreet about it. Both my females are spayed, tho.

    Look up Jacobsen's Organ and flehmen- that's where you'll decode this behavior specifically. Theres a pheromone detector in the roof of their mouth somehwere (Jacobsen's Organ- maybe its Jacobson's?) and they are using that to "read" the pee, like Ann @ayk said.
  • Both London and TK do this with pee (for the most part), but other scents as well. Like... almost like breathing through their mouth with sneaky licks here and there.
  • I would like to add to this question... Mya licks up her own pee. She also eats her own poo... Anyone else have this happen with a spayed female? She doesn't do it all the time, but it's so yucky!
  • Self-conscious about leaving a mess?
  • That's the only thing I can figure...
    Her first owner was a piece of work. I have her vet records, and apparently this person expected her to be housebroken immediately. When that didn't happen with a 2 month old puppy, she decided to attempt litter training. That was unsuccessful as well. Her second owner admitted to locking her in her crate all day because she would have accidents (1 year old at this time). She still isn't house trained, but she is paper trained and I don't fuss about it at all. She is 4 now, and I catch her licking the pad before I can pick it up to change it. I still don't fuss her because I'm trying to prevent any more anxiety, but she won't stop! Is there anything I can do to help her not be self conscious? I want her to know that I understand her problems and it's ok. She is such a good dog and she is just so tender hearted.
  • When my males were intact, they did the pee sampling on my female (spayed) Shiba quite a bit. I was glad to have that behavior over with!

    As for the female dog doing it, yeah, I'd think she was nervous about peeing/pooping. Sometimes we've seen on it on the Shiba side in dogs that were punished for going in the wrong place (usually before someone got them) or dogs that had been crated too long. So it can be an old behavior.

    Of course, some dogs just eat their poop for no reason, so it could be that too.
  • Haha! The mental image of Mya looking at poop and thinking "hmm, turds... Just what I wanted!" Is funny and horribly disgusting at the same time.

    On the original topic, I just thought back to when Sophie was a puppy. My mom and dad have a male chi about the same age as Sophie and he used to do that to her all the time! She was spayed and he was neutered, but he did it for a few months after anyways. It finally stopped when they were about a year old, thank goodness!
  • Some pineapple in her food will make her poo taste bad and discourage her from eating it.
  • My female Shikoku samples pee....surprising that almost everyone here finds it common for males to do...

    Jesse
  • Yup, my intact boy is usually trying to decide whether he prefers to mark over the spot or sample it. He's pretty fond of trying to help her clean herself after a pee too.
  • Does it matter if its fresh or canned pineapple? We are moving and all of our stuff is packed, so I can't cut up a pineapple but I can open a can of them :)
  • Does not matter
  • Awesome! I'm going to try that and I'll let you know if she does any better with it. Thank you so much for the advice!!!
  • So I have the same issue..with a twist...1 year old intact male AA who is CONSTANTLY sampling my neutered 3 year old hairless terrier's urine....
    Is my AA just really confused because I gave him a girl name? hahaha
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