Fun

Why Does My Dog Take His Own Sweet Time When It Comes To Pooping?

Written by: Tasmai Uppin

April 2, 2015

My dog is the pickiest pooper I know. Come rain or shine or snow or sweat, he must and will trudge around to find his golden mud pile. Time does not matter.

Out of curiosity, you know, just because, I decided to figure out all the inner workings that make my dog so darn choosy about his poo spots.

Thankfully, Wired, wrote a nice long think piece on the science of dog pooping. I figured I’d gist it out for you below:

1. Informational Goldmine:

frenchherbs

Dogs’ poo and pee serve as their social media profile, if you will. It conveys vital information to other dogs. Carlo Siracusa, director of the Small Animal Behavior Service at the veterinary hospital of the University of Pennsylvania told Wired:

“These messages can tell your dog how many other dogs are in the immediate area, the sexual status of those dogs—whether a female is in heat, for example—whether a particular dog is a friend or an enemy, what he or she had for lunch, and when they were last in the area.”

This partially explains why I can literally see that a-ha moment in my dog’s demeanor when he drops a deuce. He’s probably trying to hit on that Doxie down the street.

2. Refined Pooping Preferences:

sniff

Just like some hoomans can’t go in public restrooms, dogs have certain poo preferences that they develop early in life. Apparently, dogs seem to prefer softer ground and tend to go back to areas where they’ve eliminated before as long as it’s relatively clean.

Depending on where your dog grew up they might have a special affinity to certain poo expelling places. I’m guessing, since Benji is an Okie, he prefers soft muddy spots in shady corners.

3. Ap-poo-priate positioning to the earth’s magnetic fields:

poo compass

All the spinning and shifting and rearranging that your dog’s doing pre-doo doo could be attributed to them trying to recalibrate so they can align themselves to the earth’s magnetic field. According to a paper published in 2013, dogs seem to prefer poo-ing along the North-South axis.

Remind me to take my compass out the next time my dog takes a dump, just to confirm what science says.

4. Dawlding for funsies:

no home

The simplest explanation as to why your dog takes FOREVER to poop is ’cause he probably loves being outside. I’m almost certain this is why my dog takes his own sweet time.

According to Wired, urban dogs spend a lot of time indoors and only get to come out two-three times a day for toilet-related purposes so the time that they do stay out they just want to extend that time as much as possible.

H/t Wired

Featured image via Some eCards

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Written by: Tasmai Uppin

April 2, 2015

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