My dog scratches the ground after his needs
Some dogs have a habit of scratching the ground with their hind legs after urinating or defecating. One could then think that this behavior aims to cover their excrement but, in reality, it is not so. Scratching the ground after its needs is a dog marking behavior.
When he walks, the dog deposits pheromones on the ground. These pheromones are chemical messengers secreted by glands located between its pads and left for one of its congeners who will then pass by to smell them.It is the same when the dog urinates or defecates: its needs contain pheromones, carrying meaning for the other dogs who will come to sniff them. Yes, but here it is: pheromones left in a very particular place in the vastness of a park, a field or a forest, in reality have very little chance of being spontaneously detected by another dog. Never mind ! By scratching the ground, the transmitting dog leaves visible traces on the ground and accompanies its deposit of pheromones with a visual signal which will directly lead passing dogs to come and explore this particular place, either immediately after the passage of the transmitter if the other dog has seen it done, or later at the sight of the scratched ground.
Scratching the ground is thus part of the underlining postures of the dog, in the same way as raising the paw to urinate. It is used to highlight the fact that the dog is emitting an olfactory message.
Interesting fact: these postures of underlining would not be innate in the dog but result from learning by its congeners during the socialization of the puppy.Thus, a dog that has been removed too early from the presence of its congeners or not brought into enough contact with them during this period will never develop this type of behavior.
My dog scratches the ground
When a dog starts scratching the ground with its front paws, it is often to sniff out the track of a tunnel made by a rodent or a mole.
But there are many other reasons that can explain this completely normal behavior in dogs, such as:
- the fact of seeking a little freshness in the ground in summer or on the contrary, to create a shelter against the cold wind in winter,
- to dig a hole and sneak under a fence,
- to expend excess energy or out of boredom if he is not walked enough or left alone in a garden,
- to widen the entrance to a flushed burrow.
My dog scratches his basket
When a dog scratches the cushion or blanket that fills his basket, it's simply to "make his bed" . He thus arranges a sufficiently comfortable place for his taste before going to bed. It often accompanies its scratching with several turns on itself, which would be inherited from an ancestral behavior intended to chase away pests from its bed.
My dog scratches the floor of the house
Sometimes a dog starts frantically scratching the floor of the house, whether it is made up of parquet, linoleum or even the tiles, as if he wanted to do something a hole with its front legs.
This behavior can then translate:
- poor management of frustration in dogs,
- an anxiety of the animal in case of fear of loneliness, panic in reaction to a noise or even of its presence in an unknown and/or stressful place for it from which it would like to escape.
It is then necessary to identify precisely the problem that pushes your dog to act in this way in order to be able to set up an appropriate behavioral therapy. A professional dog trainer-behaviorist and/or a behavioral veterinarian can assist you in this process.