Do dogs try to cover, or spread, their poop?

When I told my wife that today's blog topic was dog poop, she said, "You're lucky that this is all you have to worry about."

Since at the time she was vacuuming the kitchen floor while I was perched at the counter with my laptop, sipping a cup of coffee and using Google to delve into the depths of dog poop behavior, I have a feeling that her comment had an ironic quality to it.

I'm unapologetic, though. Human civilization advances by exploring the natural world. And few things are more natural than pooping.

My interest in this question began a few days ago with a Twitter tweet:

Our dog pees profusely on a walk, leaving scent marks everywhere. Then poops & scratches with hind legs in ineffectual coverup attempt. ????

These seemingly differing peeing and pooping behaviors confuse me. However, our Shepherd/Lab mix, Serena, appears totally comfortable with her excretory habits.

Yesterday I asked a friend (and Greyhound owner), Hans, about this. He thought that Serena's half-hearted scratching after pooping was an attempt to spread her feces, not to cover them up.

This theory was shared by Eric, a fellow Tai Chi student with whom I started a dog poop conversation after class today. But I wasn't going to believe them until I checked with the Great God Google.

That's when things got confusing, which is why the title of this blog post ends with a question mark.

The first thing I found was that not much information about "dog poop cover" exists on the Internet. However, Google pointed me toward Dog Poop Calendar. This appears to be the preeminent source of dog poop information in cyberspace.

Here I learned about Niko, a dog who likes to spin in circles as he poops, sending feces flying all around. Whose behavior is very different from Sirius, a serious pooper who is fastidious and likes his privacy.

Yet the Dog Poop Calendar blogger wrote:

Both dogs would occasionally scratch ground with their back feet to cover the dog poop or mark their territory, though Sirius never did this until he saw Niko giving it a try. Now, with his obsession of privacy and desire to cover up his dog poop, he is careful to kick up grass and dirt at every opportunity, always with a silly grin.

"To cover the dog poop" and "mark their territory" -- opposite ends of the behavioral spectrum. Which was it? Or are dogs not bound by dualistic categorization, and embrace both covering and marking?

I pressed on with my Googling.

On Yahoo Answers I learned that supposedly dogs naturally try to cover up their waste so an enemy doesn't find them. But this doesn't explain why, most of the time, our dog makes no attempt to cover her poop. Or why dogs enthusiastically leave pee scent marks all over the place.

Answerbag didn't help much either. One person said about a related indoor behavior:

Dogs will be dogs. It's a territorial thing. I have a female Shih Tzu and she does the same thing, after she has done her business. She is just marking her territory. It's not neurotic, just a natural instinct of an animal behavior. It does not seem practical that they are trying to cover their scent, since they pee on everthing they can find and even where other dogs have been and they don't try to stratch and cover that up.

While another opined:

I always thought they scratch furiously and 'kick back' their hind legs as a covering motion. I guess this is your pup's way of 'flushing' his business. One possibility is that perhaps your pup is a deep thinker and was preoccupied and forgot to scratch and kick until he got inside.

Well, the Daily Dog Tip (from Dogster.com, which sounds like it would be a knowledgeable site) has a reasonable explanation:

So, why do dogs scratch with their hind legs after defecating? You might think the dog is trying to cover up his poop like a cat does, but it’s actually a way to mark territory, with the scratch marks in the ground pointing to the scent the dog has left.

This has the merit of consistency, melding peeing and pooping behavior in a pleasing fashion. Our dog is darn smart, but it's tough for me to imagine that she thinks (even instinctually): "pee is for marking," "poop is for hiding" when she goes outside.

So we've reached the bottom of the poop question barrel. Dogs are trying to spread their excrement when they scratch their legs. (Unless, they're not.)

Comments

[doggoneit]

Our dog uses the archipelago distribution method, which means if she unleashes (very rarely, fortunately) in the basement, it means a tedious cleanup. I think she does it that way so the doesn't step in it.
She very rarely does the 'kick back the hind legs thing' I see that as either she thinks she stepped in it, or it feels good to drop a pound...

[Scott]

What if it's a dogs way of wiping their behinds? Making sure that no feces has stuck to their butts...

[chuck]

aaa no

[tucson]

I think they are proud of their poop and are trying to decorate it.

I know that's what I do.

Prettiest turds in the forest.

Take pride in your work.

[Samantha Powell]

I come to this site for answers also, my half pit/boxer boy 81 pounds does this every time he poops on leash, and he also will do this when he pee's, not every time he markds, but its a pattern I have learned, when he kicks his hind legs with leaves flying and dirt to cover his pee, I know the next stop is poop time and he will do the same. When we keep him outside in the yard, he will sometimes wait all day and will not poo until he is unleashed and walked and will hold it the whole day. Sometimes he has went and I notice a big pile of leaves in the yard where he is at, to find under them, poop! He is very private, if one of my children are with me at walk time, he will not go, he will pee, but not poop. I do think its alot to do with hiding what they have done!