Dogs sniff stuff a lot, that's clear. But can anyone help explain the different levels of sniffing and other associated behaviour? Our boy sniffs all the wee he finds. But there seems to be three levels: 1. A quick sniff and move on. 2. A long sniffing session with some licking. 3. A long sniffing session, with lots of licking, followed by a strange mouth movement. Put your tongue between you front teeth and then move front teeth up and down whilst making the "th" sound in "thaw". It looks and sounds a bit like that. I think this is the most "excited" state. I think this is due to wee from another dog that is in the "Estrous cycle" (new word ), but I'm not sure.
Delightful description! I tried it myself! Almost like wine connoisseurs chewing wine before they spit it out. Maybe this the dogs’ world equivalent of wine tasting! Wee tasting. I’ve not seen Snowie doing no. 3, but he does do high kicks after some of the wees he sniffs. And wees over the spot he’s thoroughly licked.
We don't get the bitch-in-heat reaction with our neutered boy, unsurprisingly. Not all wees need weeing on, however, but some do. When OH and I debate about it, I can almost hear Coco say "for heavens sake you pair of Galoots, just get down here and sniff it, it's obvious!"
Axel will give a wee a brief sniff, sometimes followed by weeing over it but that’s as far as he’s taken it so far
I don't think no. 3 is a bitch in heat at all. It's just a super dooper good smell. Certainly wee from girls who are spayed and wee from boys can induce this reaction in Charlie. It just happens to be super good, is all. Wee from bitches in season, close to being in season, or towards the end, usually means Charlie is following a trail at super high speed to find out where the bitch in season was/is heading, he's not stood there hanging about chattering his teeth!
Dogs chatter their teeth for various reasons - excitement, stress, when playing or being petted. It can act as a sort of emotional outlet. It is most commonly seen during sniffing. You may see this behavior in particular in intact male dogs when they are smelling urine from a female dog in heat. Most likely when they are chattering their teeth, they are carefully assessing the odour using their Jacobson organ, a special pouch-like structure found in the dog’s nose with a special duct called the incisive papilla found right between the dog’s front teeth. When they chatter their teeth, and some even foam at the mouth, dogs are sending large scent molecules to their incisive papilla so they can reach the Jacobson organ and then the dog’s brain center responsible for responsible for coordinating important mating functions and other basic emotions. So yes my vote goes for a bitch in heat
I agree with Julie, usually an intact male when encountering the urine from a bitch in heat will immediately go in the same spot to mask the spot to take other potential suitors off the trail and then try to track her down right away. As I understand it, the various intensities of smelling a spot are related to how strong or fresh it is and how interested animal A is in finding more information about animal B. Wee is like animal Facebook. Lol.
Since Charlie will do the teeth chattering thing in his own garden, when a spayed girl has a wee, I can definitely say a bitch in season is not required to generate a teeth chattering sniffing session in my intact dog! Meeting a bitch in season, or smelling a bitch in season, generates a much more dramatic response in the healthy, adult intact male - old enough to have an idea what it's all about, anyway!
I would love to know what Benson's reaction to a bitch in season is...as he is either a dot on the horizon, or I am busy wrestling him to the ground...while cursing said bitch dog owner...
I curse out loud! Even though I've walked a bitch in season. Not off lead on Wimbledon Common though! Yikes....mad people!
Lucky for you JulieT that our pathes do not cross. If my girl is on lead, with a massive yellow bow and I'm on a very off track trail and your intackt males are free, what would you say (or yell) at me?
No, I can recall my intact male - even from a bitch in heat. If you can recall your intact female too, should you have her off lead, then we won't have a problem. The only problem I have ever had is in season bitches running up to my intact male. Although, you are clearly making your point to start a stroppy argument (happy to oblige ) since the last thing I was talking about is in season bitches, on lead, way out of the way - i was talking about in season, off lead, bitches on Wimbledon Common. Why don't you try walking your in season bitch off lead there and see how many people tell you you are barking f*%king mad?
Zaba, intact male, did the lip smacking thing as Mollie came into season, but I haven’t seen him do it any other time. We keep our girls in for the whole of their season. .
