{"id":3716,"date":"2016-06-24T11:17:45","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T18:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/petcarefacts.com\/?p=3716"},"modified":"2016-06-24T11:17:45","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T18:17:45","slug":"why-dogs-sniff-each-others-rear-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/training-and-behavior\/why-dogs-sniff-each-others-rear-ends","title":{"rendered":"Why Dogs Sniff Each Other\u2019s Rear Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"We\u2019ve all seen dogs do it.\u00a0 When canines approach each other, they often walk right up the other dog\u2019s rear end at the first meeting.\u00a0 To a human, nothing seems stranger or more distasteful than the idea of taking a nice long whiff of another being\u2019s behind. But to a dog, this is not only a natural instinct, it is one of the best ways to learn a whole host of facts about this new pal.\u00a0 Here are some facts about a dog\u2019s anal glands, and what possesses dogs to sniff one another.<\/p>\n

What is the benefit of sniffing?<\/h2>\n

Every dog has two anal glands located just on the inside of the anus, where they store liquid. Every time the dog eliminates waste, the grape-sized glands excrete a minor amount of the fluid onto the feces, which identifies it as the individual dog\u2019s waste. This is what many people refer to as \u201cthe calling card\u201d or \u201cmarking the territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

While humans find the odor unpalatable, dogs can absorb an abundance of information from the scent. Every dog\u2019s gland secretion is created with a concoction of original elements of aliphatic acid, ethanol, acetic acid, and trimethylamine. These combined provide information about what the dog eats, where he has been, how old he is, whether or not he is ready to mate, etc.\u00a0 Sniffing another dog\u2019s behind could be equated to reading an online profile about someone, or looking at their driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 Dogs are able to learn all of this information about other pups that a mere glance of the eyes would never be able to reveal.<\/p>\n

Not just sniffing\u2026 (Other uses for anal glands)<\/em><\/h2>\n

Though the primary purpose of a creature\u2019s anal glands are to mark territory, and identify the dog when pups sniff each other,\u00a0 there are other uses for the glands as well.\u00a0 When agitated or frightened, a dog might release all the fluid in the glands as a defense mechanism.\u00a0 Not unlike the skunk\u2019s main weapon, doing so will cause a brief diversion of a strong and putrid odor that could allow the dog a chance to get away.<\/p>\n

Other behaviors are associated with the anal glands as well, such as \u201cbottom dragging.\u201d When an animal\u2019s anal glands become too full, or blocked up for some reason, you may witness the dog dragging his behind on the floor as a well of expelling some of the liquid. Because anal glands can experience swelling, causing the dog or cat discomfort, one of the best ways to help the sacs become healthy and functional again, is to have them expelled by the groomer or veterinarian.\u00a0 Doing so will restore the glands, allowing the animal\u2019s body to function properly again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all seen dogs do it.\u00a0 When canines approach each other, they often walk right up the other dog\u2019s rear end at the first meeting.\u00a0 To a human, nothing seems stranger or more distasteful than the idea of taking a nice long whiff of another being\u2019s behind. But to a dog, this is not only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-3716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training-and-behavior","tag-dogs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5xKys-XW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}