What are table scraps anyway? Sure, these are the left-overs of one’s meal. But your meal probably differs from my meal, so there is no clear definition.

A colleague, who regularly feeds his dogs table scraps in addition to premium dog food, told me the following story yesterday. He had fed this three dogs Indonesian table scraps. Two of them, the Australian Shepherds, could handle this without any problems. However, the Portuguese Water Dog got severe diarrhoea. When my colleague woke up in the morning and went downstairs, he discovered the huge smelly mess on the floor. For two days the unfortunate Portuguese walked around with bubbly sounds coming from his stomach and didn’t care so much for food. So what seems ok for one dog, may hurt the other.

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Marking is an all too common behavior that we see from our furry friends. Some dogs live for their outside time to mark their spots! Some behavior includes dogs scratching their feet on the ground after they complete number two. This action is one way of spreading their scent to send a message to other dogs; there are scent glands located in the pads of your four-legged friend’s feet, so they scratch to spread that scent around.

The marking we see that can sometimes be embarrassing is the dog hiking its’ leg on objects, things, and even people. Don’t be fooled by thinking this is only a male thing, your very dominant females may also hike their leg as well. Scent marking is a way for dogs to lay out their territory; the more dominant the dog the more territory they feel they should mark. Marking can also decipher pack order in a group of dogs. Usually your pack leader will mark over any of the other dogs in the group to prove their position. Dog’s cocking their leg is an attempt to distribute their scent to the highest point physically possible, allowing the air currents to disperse it throughout the area or territory.

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