When your dog is kicking up grass or leaves after
- Thread starter Eppy99
- Start date
This is a new topic of discussion.
Our dog runs away from her poop while kicking up her rear legs. It does seem like she is wiping off her feet. I don't remember our old dog doing anything other than just walking away.
I have noticed when I pick up poop before mowing the grass, she will take a dump before I can get the mower to the backyard. It doesn't matter what time of day.
Neither. It's part of territory marking....and yeah most dogs do it. Dogs have scent glands in their paws.
It's like the old story about being given one piece of single ply to wipe with....
She's just cleaning under her finger nails.
She's just cleaning under her finger nails.
Most dogs do it and the reason they do it is they are leaving a visual message and a scent behind to warn other dogs that is their territory. If a dog doesn't do it after defecating or urinating, they don't feel threatened and know they own the area.
Ok, I totally buy this explanation. My dog craps on almost every walk so he doesn't go much in he backyard. So if he does go in my backyard then technically he shouldn't be doing this behavior. I will watch for this.
In humans, this is type of marking behavior is characterized by obsessive bunker raking.
My dog has never pooped during a walk. I don't carry a bag because it has never been a problem. She does pee on everything she can. I have to be careful inside the vet and at Pet Smart or she will pee on the floor. Sometimes she starts to do it on the way back home on our walks and I remind her she already got that spot. I can't figure out where all that pee is coming from. She never kicks up grass when she pees, only when pooping.
My dog has other strange habits. She won't eat directly out of where her food is left. She will take a mouthful and carry it to the patio or lounge chair and eat it from there. She also likes to bury food. On the rare nights she spends in the garage, I will find small piles of dog food in different areas and evidence she tried to dig a hole.
What breed of dog do you have? and is her food bowl Metal?
I've researched this before with other dogs that I've owned and found that dogs that have a "pack" mentality tend to carry food to another place that would be away from the main food source. While your dog was likely not born in that kind of environment, the bloodlines still exist.
I also found that noise is a problem for some dogs and eat out of metal bowls. It bothers them. So just get a plastic one or paper plate and you should be good to go.
She is a Siberian Husky. I have a feeder with a swinging flap of a similar design that I used with other dogs to keep her food dry and try to keep birds and other animals out. Sometimes she will drop food next to her feeder and eat it there and sometimes she will carry it away. She usually waits until I walk away before she starts to eat although she will eat a treat right away.
Our dog rarely craps on walks and only in the yard. I've never seen her scratch at grass, but I know what you're talking about. I think it's generally males that do it, which would also seem to coincide with the dominance marking theory.
And excessive flatulence at each hole. (Not THOSE holes)
I've had my lab for 2 years. She gets walked 4 times a day (3 by me, 1 by dog walker--well, M-F anyway). She usually poops 2-3 times per day, always firing a walk. She has never pooped in my backyard, though she does pee back there sometimes. She doesn't kick it do anything after she poops. She just waits for me to pick it up and moves on. But the funny thing she does is that she looks away while popping amd peeing. She never looks at me. It's almost like she wants privacy. "Don't watch me take a shit!"
I posted about this once. Whenever my dog takes a crap on a walk he faces the other direction with his backside towards me. I think they do like a little privacy.
We had a dog that would seek out bushes to poop because he wanted privacy. The current dog will just do it randomly on the gravel path, and previously it was never an issue because we lived in Michigan. There we had fairly big yards and didn't need to take them for walks.
I usually do it after a night with a bottle of tequila and an Uber trip to Taco Bell. It's just my way of showing my intestines that I can just about anything.
