Ground Scratching: Why Does My Dog Do It?

Summer scratching

Why do some dogs scratch with their paws after they eliminate?

I recently read a discussion on Facebook about the meaning of this dog behavior. Some people’s speculations about the reasons for the behavior included:

  • Avoiding something or another behavior (displacement)
  • Expressing anxiety
  • Expressing boredom
  • Relieving stress
  • Expressing frustration
  • Calming oneself
  • Calming another dog
  • Expressing enjoyment of a previous activity
  • Being stressed
  • Expressing high arousal
  • Marking (territorial)
  • Marking by scent
  • Marking visually

Note that all but the last three of these have to do with an emotion or internal state.

I was interested in particular in the conjecture that the behavior was linked to some kind of stress. My dog Summer is a “scratcher” and she does it with what I observe to be exuberance and satisfaction. (You’ll see in the movie.) Interestingly, she doesn’t scratch only after eliminating. She will also scratch where there are scents of another dog’s elimination. Summer also lifts her leg to mark with urine. More on that later.

What Does the Literature Say?

Dirt scratching, or scraping, has been studied by ethologists. These are mostly observational studies, where numbers of canids were observed performing various elimination, sniffing, and marking behaviors. The behaviors are counted and the surrounding circumstances recorded. Dr. Marc Bekoff points out that it hasn’t been studied all that much in dogs though, compared to the study of other animals.1)  He and others are gradually filling in the blanks, however.

Here are some of the functions for ground scratching that ethologists have proposed:

  • Dispersing scent from the dog’s urine or feces2)3)4)5)
  • Dispersing scent from glands in the dog’s paws6)7)8)9)10)
  • A visual demonstration in real time, in the presence of other dogs11)12)13)
  • A visual demonstration in the form of leaving marks on the ground14)15)16)

Note that none of these hypotheses is linked to an internal emotion, although one source did note that ground scratching was seen more often “when the individual was aggressively aroused.”17) The main discussion revolves around function, and even then, the conclusions are very circumspect. Dirt scratching may be communication to other dogs, but speculations by ethologists about the content of that communication are still very conservative.

This is a valuable reminder to me that as much as we would love to, we can never know exactly what is going on in our dogs’ minds.

What’s the Smelly Feet Thing About?

One of the hypotheses for the function of the behavior is that glands on the dogs’ paws may give off a scent, and that scratching may deposit and disperse it. What are these glands? Most sources mention sweat glands.

“…paw pads in dogs are one of the few locations that contain eccrine sweat glands. In dogs, apocrine glands are the major type of sweat gland, and the distribution of eccrine sweat glands is limited to the footpads and nose.”  18)

However, there are other glands that may be involved:

“…It has been suggested that the scratching action itself may leave scent in the environment produced by either interdigital glands, sweat glands on the foot pads, or sebaceous glands in the fur between the toes.” 19)

From what I read in the literature, there has not yet been a definitive finding about whether scent from the paws is involved, and if so, from which source.

Male vs. Female Behaviors

Summer scratching 2Two studies by Marc Bekoff showed that approximately the same percentages of male and female dogs performed ground scratching (about 10%), but also that the males who ground scratched did so much more frequently than the females. 20) 21)Another study showed that among females, those who were spayed were more likely to scratch than those who were intact and not in estrous. (Females in estrous were not included in the study.) 22)

The same study also found that females four or more years old directed the majority of their urinations at objects in the environment (marked) and directed more of their urinations when walked off their home area than when walked within their home area. Both of these are true for Summer.

Raised leg urination such as many male dogs perform has also been theorized to have the function of visual display, since it is sometimes performed without urination.23)24) Male dogs have also been observed to raise their legs more frequently to urinate when in the presence of another dog.25) Some female dogs raise their legs as well, including Summer.

So What Does Summer Do?

The movie shows Summer enthusiastically scratching the ground in several different situations:

  1. After squatting to pee;
  2. After raising her leg to pee;
  3. Immediately after entering an area with interesting smells and without eliminating at all; and
  4. After smelling another dog’s droppings (also without eliminating).

If Summer’s behavior is functional, and not some kind of twisted evolutionary leftover, it may support the “dispersing odor from the paws” hypothesis. See what you think.

Link to the movie about ground scratching for email subscribers. 

Function vs. Emotional State

I’m not an ethologist; I’m a pet owner. So while I’m fascinated with the possible function of the behavior of scratching, I’m also interested in my dog’s emotional state when she does it. And I’d simply say she is enjoying performing a natural doggie activity. The prompts for her behavior seem to be scents, nothing more complex than that.

Summer is a primal sort of dog. Her breeding is so mixed that she resembles a village dog in all but her double coat. She has a strong prey drive and scavenger drive. And although our bond is strong and she loves doing things with me, her natural inclinations are very, very dog-y. In many ways she is more “wild” than my feral-born dog, Clara, who appears to have a wealth of “I like to partner with a human” genes. Go figure.

In any case, Summer seems to love scratching the dirt. You could say she gets a real kick out of it.

How about your dogs? Males, females? When do they do it? What is their demeanor when doing so? Do tell!

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1, 25. Bekoff, Marc. “The Significance of Ethological Studies: Playing and Peeing.”Domestic Dog Cognition and Behavior. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2014. 59-75.
2, 6. Peters, R.P., Mech, D., 1975. “Scent-marking in wolves.” Am. Sci. 63, 628–637.
3, 7, 12, 15, 23. Bekoff, Marc. “Ground scratching by male domestic dogs: a composite signal.”Journal of Mammalogy (1979): 847-848.
4, 8. Bekoff, M., Wells, M.C., 1986. “Social ecology and behavior of coyotes.” Adv. Stud. Behav. 16, 251–338.
5, 9, 16. Sprague, Randall H., and Joseph J. Anisko. “Elimination patterns in the laboratory beagle.” Behaviour (1973): 257-267.
10, 13, 17. Petak, Irena. “Patterns of carnivores’ communication and potential significance for domestic dogs.” Periodicum biologorum 112.2 (2010): 127-132.
11, 14. Kleiman, D., Eisenberg, J.F., 1973. “Comparisons of canid and felid social systems from an evolutionary perspective.” Anim. Behav. 21, 637–659.
18. Miller, William Howard, et al. Muller and Kirk’s Small Animal Dermatology 7: Muller and Kirk’s Small Animal Dermatology. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2013.
19. Serpell, James, ed. The domestic dog: its evolution, behaviour and interactions with people. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
21. Bekoff, Marc. “Scent marking by free-ranging domestic dogs: Olfactory and visual components.”Biology of Behavior, 4, 123-139.
22. Wirant, Sharon Cudd, and Betty McGuire. “Urinary behavior of female domestic dogs (Canis familiaris): influence of reproductive status, location, and age.”Applied Animal Behaviour Science 85.3 (2004): 335-348.
24. Cafazzo, Simona, Eugenia Natoli, and Paola Valsecchi. “Scent‐Marking Behaviour in a Pack of Free‐Ranging Domestic Dogs.” Ethology 118.10 (2012): 955-966.

To learn more about canine behavior and so much more, head to Tampa, Florida on November 11-13, 2015 for the Pet Professional Guild’s inaugural educational convention, the Force-Free Summit – Reaching for a Higher Standard.'

About Eileen Anderson

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13 Responses to Ground Scratching: Why Does My Dog Do It?

  1. Theo Stewart says:

    Loved this Eileen. My Cocker does it only after poo and he does it with ‘attitude’ – a bit like someone acting tough might spit! This is of course put a human label on the behaviour but it is what it looks like to me. By the way, my entire bitch GSD (7) scuffs after she goes (not urinating though) where my spayed Labrador bitch (3) never does.

  2. I have a theory that differs completely from anything I’ve ever heard. It’s strictly anecdotal, but something I think I’ve noticed with my own dog. She will generally walk far away from her elimination to do this. My theory, to some extent is that it is an inherently good feeling for them to find relief after eliminating, and stretch their legs in a way to possibly relieve what is left in their anal sacs. Because all dogs do this differently, I do believe there can be a number of reasons, some of which you’ve stated above. Again, total speculation on my part, it’s just based on what appears to be a sense of internal relief of her back end. Almost like stretching after feeling good about emptying her bladder or bowels.

  3.' Tania says:

    Dear Eileen,
    Great article on this subject.
    My Bobby, male, approx. 7 years old, mix our of Boston terrier, Ratonero, French bully, does it also every time and he throws the dirt so high that it is sometimes landing on his back, he comes back in, and has more dirt under his back feet than outside. :-)
    It’s incredible, so he even does it in our own backyard, no other dogs there except our other little female dog Ketti. She never does it.

  4. Interestingly, my lovely Sioux (spayed female) used to do this quite a bit. I never noticed her actually touching any of her urine or excrement while doing so, and she did it at times when other dogs were present, but also when no other dogs were present. While I’ve had females that leg-lifted, she was not one of them. In terms of general temperament, Sioux was a soft dog, the consummate therapy dog, in fact, and very sweet and biddable. I tend to lean toward the hypothesis that it’s a behavior designed to leave scent in the environment. But, of course, always interested in new research and what it might tell us.

    • In the final analysis it may remain one of those mysteries. But I also lean towards the scent theory. I still think it is most interesting that Summer does it where other dogs have gone, not necessarily where she has.

  5.' Kat says:

    My spayed bitch does it post urination in the back yard only. She does it every single time with haste, gusto and I dare say joy!

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  7. My Matilda is a lot like your Summer, she lifts her leg, and she scratches the ground a lot, too. She does it very forcefully, puts on a big show about it, even if there aren’t other dogs around. So many possible explanations! I think it’s part of a dog’s “graffiti” – her expression of “I was here!” – Maybe with the paw scent glands, or the visual display.

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