8 yr. old now flicks dirt behind to cover up #2. Why?

As an aside - if a visiting dog scrapes up your yard and YOU have a dog who scrapes - there COULD be a dogfight simmering under the surface, with two dogs who are vying for being the dominant one.

We didn't allow Jack (Cattle Dog) to scrape. In addition to the lawn damage, he was already strange-dog aggressive; putting on a huge display of macho male (he was neutered late, unfortunately) was something that just wasn't necessary.

Thanks all for your comments. Here's what one person said and I found posted on the web - . . .
"Dog paws contain scent glands. There are also glands in between the toes. The action of scraping the paws against the ground helps release the scent inside of the glands. Dogs scrape the ground in order to increase their scent on the area near the feces pile, according to veterinarian Dr. Justine Lee. Before domestication, dogs wandered in large territories. One vital way to communicate with other wandering dogs is through scent marking. This instinct has not been bred out of the domestic dog." bb

Our females do it; it's very annoying in the yard as they disturb the grass. Dogs have scent pads on the pads of their feet which leave their scent when they kick up turf like that. It's the same as when they urinate a few drops every so often on a walk. They're leaving "pee-mail". They also like to check everyone else's "pee-mail" as they walk, and then cover up another dog's scent with their own.

We lost our alpha dog on January. The three legged Lab had always been second in the pecking order. After old Gus died, we looked outside and Murphy was going around the yard covering all of Gus's scent spots to make them "his". All of a sudden he started hopping around In a circle. We couldn't figure it out at first, but soon realized that even a dog with one back leg can do the dirt kicking thing. He also did it when we visited our daughter's house to cover the scent from her dog. Sure wish I had a video of him doing it!

It's just part of that 'Kardasian' affect


LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME (course in this case it's SMELL ME, SMELL ME)


:B

It's a dog thing.
Don't loose any sleep over it.

Both of our Dobies sometimes do that as they walk away from it.We have noticed all of our dogs do it sometimes. We call it revving up their motors.
Yesterday we had new neighbors moving in. Zena our Anatolian Shepard had a meet and greet with their dog Joe, an Australian shepherd.
Our farm surrounds their place and it is important for Zena to know their dog.
Joe kept coming up to Zena and then he would go off and mark his territory and then rev up his motor and come back to Zena and they would play some more. At one point she mounted him and did the doggie thing.
I don't know if that is a friendship thing or a dominate thing but the dogs are buddies now and we aren't as concerned if he should wander over into her territory.

gbopp wrote:
Our 7 year old Pooch, a Chihuahua, does the scraping sometimes. I thought it was just something dogs do.

It is. Most dogs. Sometimes.

Perfectly natural and nothing to worry about.

On a somewhat related subject:
From a Judge Judy show last week:
It is perfectly normal for dogs to "hump" each other as a sign of dominance in establishing the "pecking order".
Even female dogs do it sometimes and it is NOT a sign that you have a "homosexual" dog.

Yes, it is true. Some clueless woman sued because she thought this guy had sold her a gay dog.

Our 7 year old Pooch, a Chihuahua, does the scraping sometimes. I thought it was just something dogs do.

They aren't "covering" - they are marking - spreading the scent in a display of dominance. My Cattle Dog used to do that when I wasn't looking - "scraping" was discouraged at my house due to his ability to actually tear divots out of the yard while scraping.