Who can explain dog behavior to me?

[mthomas58]

Can't figure this one out. Have Googled and still don't get it. Take dogs for walk and they invariably find the stinkiest thing around to roll in (dead bird/animal, goose poop, deer poop, freshly turned dirt [mucky smell]) They love to roll in it ....typically head and ears. I don't get it - can anyone explain this odd behavior to me????

[WolfeMacleod]

Disguising their scent so prey does not detect them. All dogs do it.
I do it too.

[Zeke]

Explain dogs? They shovel it in one end, crap it out the other and bark about it. Then they roll their eyes and cock their head and people go nuts to get more slobber on them.

Yeah, dogs.

[Red88Carrera]

milt, you don't like dogs?

[Danny_Ocean]

Cats rule, dogs drool.

[911boost]

That GSD is just toying with the cat. See how the ears are up straight and the hackles aren't up? Plus watch his tail and tongue....

I've see mine do that as well.

[Danny_Ocean]

My money is on the cat (as long as he still has his claws).

[romad]

if that dog was not playing you have one dead cat. As a kid we had a local wild cat problem and my buddy had a Norwegian elkhound. When that dog would get loose we would be burying 2 or 3 dead cats before we caught him.

[Danny_Ocean]

We're discussing that cat and that dog.

Cat wins.

[Geronimo '74]

Originally Posted by Danny_Ocean

We're discussing that cat and that dog.

Cat wins.

In a fight to the end? That cat, that dog?

Dog bites, lifts cat from the ground, shakes his head twice, left and right. Game over, pussy gonna start stinking. (dog walks away with some scratches.)

[DARISC]

Check this out.

Ya GOTTA love this!

[Buckterrier]

How's this Mark...

The book "The Other End of the Leash" by Patricia B McConnell, Ph.D actually talked about dogs rolling on dead animals, feces, and otherwise smelly things. Was a good read I tell you.

"... just maybe, they also do it for the same reason we put on perfume."

"What must dogs think of a species that grinds up jelly from deer bellies (Musk), a squishy liquid from sperm whales (ambergris), secretions from anal glands (civer), and the genitalia of plants (flowers are reproductive parts, pure and simple) to smear all over our bodies?"

[fred cook]

I had a cat once that I found as a wild kitten. When she grew up, she was afraid of nothing! Our next door neighbor bought a pit bull puppy at one point that eventually started coming into our yard to snoop around. At one point, he decided to go after the cat, bad move! Cat would sit up her haunches and wait for the dog to get close enough for a couple of good front claw swipes to the nose. Dog would back up a couple of steps, cat would go forward the same distance and repeat the nose swipes. The young pit bull finally got backed completely out of the yard after multiple nose strikes and never came back! One of my dogs (an Elkhound) got too aggressive with the cat one day and I had to pry the cat's claws out of his muzzle. Score, cat 2, dogs 0. Unfortunately, the cat contracted the Parvo virus just before the vaccine became available.

[GH85Carrera]

I used to have a Doberman. She was the sweetest dog on the planet, unless you were a cat. She went nuts when she saw a cat. Many of the neighborhood cats met their demise in my back yard. I had to dispose of the remains of several cats and a couple of squirrels. When she was in my back yard and cats entered her domain, game over. She knew not to just approach a cat, she would hit the cat at a full run, bite, shake, dead cat.

One day I heard a funny noise in the back yard. I went out and she had her foot on the chest of a cat and was about to kill it when I pulled her off of the cat and it hobbled over the fence. The next day some neighbors from a few houses came over and asked if my dog was OK. I check her out and she did not have a scratch on her. They were the owners of the cat I had saved from my dog. They said their cat was a cat that had whipped & injured many dogs. I told them their cat was very lucky that I was able to get my dog off of their cat in my backyard because it was seconds from death. I suggested they keep the cat out of my back yard. I never saw that cat in my yard again. I think it learned it's lesson.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by Red88Carrera

milt, you don't like dogs?

As was said about W. C. Fields, Anyone who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.

[Taz's Master]

Originally Posted by DARISC

As was said about W. C. Fields, Anyone who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.

Exactly! I don't maintain those dogs for your enjoyment, but to keep you out. The ones who hate dogs understand this best.