Eliminating Behaviour in Canines

Eliminating Behaviour in Canines

(¹Adarsh Bhambri,² Harneet Kour,³ Tanvika Sangwan &⁴Priyanka Syal)

  ¹4^th professional year scholar BVSc. & A.H, College Of Veterinary Science,  Rampura Phul

   ²Assistant Professor Dept. of Veterinary Medicine, College Of Veterinary Science,  Rampura Phul

³Assistant Professor dept. of Veterinary Medicne, College Of Veterinary Science,  Ludhiana

⁴ Assistant Professor Dept. of Veterinary Pathology, College Of Veterinary Science,  Rampura Phul

*Email: dradarshbhambri@gmail.com (Corresponding Author)

Abstract

Well developed olfactory glands,  vision and auditory along with tactile senses of dogs make their living possible in a social enviornment as it helps them to fetch concious information about the surroundings from other fellow dogs and humans. These behavioural traits help their owners to well understand the psychology and well bieng of their pet. The eliminative behaviour understanding would be a great help in preventing problems in first place as owners often take the eliminative behaviour of their dog for granted and so!etimes the pre assumptions made by them about their dog due to eliminative behavioural issues lead no longer trust worthiness of the dog in the eyes of its owner.

Keywords

Eliminative Behaviour,  Canine , anogenital reflex

Introduction

The development of eliminative behaviour change takes place as the dog matures from its birth to onset of childhood. Behavious present at the time of birth may disappears by 3 months of age and news ones may completely change again next 3 months.

Puppy Behaviour

Puppy is unable to defecate or urinate on its owm at the time of birth. The elimination behaviour is stimulated in pupiies by bitcges. To initate this trait mother licks caudal absomen and perineal regions. The process of licking initiates andd triggers anogenital reflex resulting in urination and defecation. While not particularly important in the pet,  this behaviour helps minimise the attraction of potential predators and insect pests to the area in wild and it reduces risks of diseases.^{1, 2}  From birth to 2 weeks of age puppies start eliminating on their own. By 16 to 18 days of age the anogenital reflex disappears and maternal stimulation is no longer needed. By 3 weeks puppy becomes mobile enough to walk to one corner of nest box or leave it altogether before eliminating^{3, 4} The tendency to go to specific area which develops by 9 weeks is useful in housetraining puppies and it is apparently a genetically acquired trait.⁵

Around the time of sexual maturity,  generally 5 to 8 months of age,  the adult male urination posture appears,  with lifted leg and slightly tilted body allowing dog to urinate on vertical object.⁶

House Training

The natural tendency to eliminate at particular location in case of puppies is developed by the age of 9 weeks and house training of such puppies is less tedious as compared to tje puppies of young age. The primary ingrediens needed are patience, praise, confinement and schedule.⁷  The  keyfeature of patience is must as puppies donot become housebroken overnight. Owners should not expectcarpets to be safe and even after few weeks of puppy taming as some of the pups may slow in learning even in certain cases dogs may take year of consistent handeling before they become housesafe and few others even may never seem to be learned. The consistency in owners is very important in their pet’s housetraining program as deviation !ay confuse the young dog and delay learning evern more⁷

A brief counselling session may invreaas owners ability to house train their dog in one month from 86.4% to 98.1% compared to just handing out educational materials⁸

These issues may rise as the puppies have small urinary bladders and donot concenterate urine well in kidneys they generally cannot retain after 4 to 6 hrs.⁹

Adult Urination

Dogs deposit a lot of urine on the ground each year.people typically think of three urinary postures in dogs—the squat used by females, the leg-lift with partial squat used occasionally by females, and the male’s raised-leg posture. Sprague and anisko described eight elimination postures plus another four combination postures¹⁰  In female dogs, 68% of the urinary postures are the squat.¹¹

Females are more apt to use that posture when away from their home area.¹²  The raise alone occurs 4.6% of the time, and a slight stifle flex plus a raised rear limb (flex-raise) occurs 3.1% of the time.¹³ In the elevated position (2.3% of urinary postures), the limb is lifted above the horizontal, necessitating pelvic rotation.¹³ Other minor postures used by females include a handstand, a flex, and a lean at 1.9%, 0.4%, and 0.4%, respectively.¹³

Male urinations are directed toward vertical targets 97.6% of the time, but 15% of the time the dog urinates on the ground for at least a while.¹³Males that urinate on the ground instead of vertical objects use an elevated leg posture only 9% of the time; the rest of the time they use a raised-leg posture (52%) or some variant of the raised-leg posture (lean-raise 13% and squat-raise 26%).¹³ When a male dog does use a raised-leg posture or a variant of it, he urinates on the ground instead of against a vertical object 60% of the time.68 Males almost always sniff the ground or an object before and/or during urinating.¹³

ADULT DEFECATION

Dog feces is a major contaminant in any of the locality or a community and considerably one of the greatest public health concern. he average fecal output per dog is 0.75 lb (0.35 kg) per day in two or three defecations, and feces takes approximately 1 week to decompose.^{14, 15} The posture for defecation is common in both the sexes and thete are no such variations like the urination posture. Among female dogs, 96.8% defecate with the arch posture, as do 79.5% of the males.¹³ the remaining 3.2% of the females use a leg-elevated posture for defecation.¹³   Urban dogs are most likely to defecate in public places while accompanied by their owner, especially when allowed off lead. Young dogs defecate more often than adults, active more than inactive, and those on higher fiber diets more than those on highly digestible ones. typically these defecations will occur after waking, within 20 minutes of eating, and before bedtime.

Conclusion

The eliminating behaviour of dog changes at each phase of life from birth to the adolescence. There are different development of postures in various breeds and different sex of canines. This elimination behaviour and its knowledge is the keyfeature for the owner to tame the pet with full ease so that there should not be discomfort for both the owner and its pet.

Refrences

1. Bleicher N: Behavior of the bitch during parturition. J am Vet Med assoc 1962; 140:1076.  16.  Bradshaw JWS, Nott hMr: Social and communication behaviour of companion dogs.  In Serpell J (ed): the Domestic Dog: Its evolution, Behaviour and Interactions with people. Cambridge, england: Cambridge University press, 1995, p. 115.
2. houpt Ka: Feeding and drinking behavior problems. Vet Clin North am [Small anim pract] 1991; 21(2):281.
3. Fuller JL, Fox MW: the behaviour of dogs.  In hafez eSe (ed): the Behaviour of Domestic animals, 2nd ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1969, p. 438.
4. Voith VL, Borchelt pL: elimination behavior and related problems in dogs. Compend Contin educ 1985; 7(7):537.
5. hart BL: Normal behavior and behavioral problems associated with sexual function, urination and defecation. Vet Clin North am 1974; 4(3):589.
6. hart BL: Gonadal hormones and behavior of the female dog. Canine pract 1975; 5(2):8.
7. Beaver BV: Behavior development and behavioral disorders.  In hoskins JD (ed): Veterinary pediatrics: Dogs and Cats From Birth to Six Months of age, 2nd ed. philadelphia: Saunders, 1995, p. 23.
8. herron Me, Lord LK, hill LN, et al: effects of preadoption counseling for owners on house-training success among dogs acquired from shelters. J am Vet Med assoc 2007; 231(4):558.
9. hunthausen WL: Giving new puppy owners practical tips to curb unruly behavior can save lives. DVM 1990; 21:29.
10. Bradshaw JWS, Nott hMr: Social and communication behaviour of companion dogs.  In Serpell J (ed): the Domestic Dog: Its evolution, Behaviour and Interactions with people. Cambridge, england: Cambridge University press, 1995, p. 115.
11. Wirant SC, McGuire B: Urinary behavior of female domestic dogs (Canis familiaris): Influence of reproductive status, location, and age. appl anim Behav Sci 2004; 85:335.
12. Macdonald DW: the carnivores: Order Carnivora. In Brown re, Macdonald DW (eds): Social Odours in Mammals, vol 2. Oxford, england: Clarendon press, 1985, p. 619.
13. Sprague rh, anisko JJ: elimination patterns in the laboratory beagle. Behavior 1973; 47:257.
14. Beaver BV: the role of veterinary colleges in addressing the surplus dog and cat problem. J am Vet Med assoc 1991; 198(7):1241.
15. Beck aM: the ecology of Stray Dogs: a Study of Freeranging Urban animals. Baltimore: York press, 1973.

Please follow and like us: