Look at a dog’s body language and you can get a pretty good idea of what’s on his mind.
Your dog will let humans or other animals know he is not happy with something through
his bark, growl or snarl. The dog’s body language is another method of communicating
besides the vocal method. The dog wagging a tail is a sign of happiness while the showing
of teeth lends itself to the dog’s aggressive nature.
In addition, a dog will mark his territory as another method of communicating with
other animals. Take the example of the dog’s owner moving into a different house with
a house trained dog. The dog will urinate in different areas inside the house to let
himself and others know that this house is his new territory. This will happen even
though the dog is trained to do his business outside the house. Scent marking is
important to your pet dog. It is nothing more than the dog being confident and comfortable
in the new location.
It is a natural behavior for a dog to mark areas with their scent. Everyone knows
that a dog has a highly developed sense of smell. You see it all the time when you take
your pet dog for a walk. They smell everything. If your dog picks up an unfamiliar scent
or is in a non-recognizable area, your dog will urinate to mark his spot and feel relieved.
A dog can also spread their scent by rubbing against objects like walls and furniture.
Cats also use this method of body rubbing to distribute their scent. However, dogs prefer
to urinate rather than rubbing their bodies to mark their territory.
A dog will sniff around an area when in the marking mode and spray a small stream of
urine toward the target area. This will leave a scent market for other dogs that happen
to come by that area. It is very common for the same spot to be marked by many different
dogs.
If there are many neighborhood dogs that usually roam around outside your house, it is
not uncommon for your pet dog to scent mark within your house to let the other dogs know
they are in his territory. Your dog is only trying to protect the territory and doesn’t
know that the other dogs can’t get into the house.
