Why does my dog drag his butt across my CLEAN carpet?!

Scooting is when animals drag their bum on the ground or floor. It is usually a behaviour associated with dogs but sometimes cats do it as well. Dogs and cats have two little glands around their anus that produce a foul smelling fluid that gets deposited on feces when the animal has a bowel movement. It’s like their calling card and is involved in marking their territory. Every dog or cat has his own smell. That’s why animals smell each other’s butts and feces. They are just reading the other animal’s calling card. Sometimes, these glands aren’t being expressed and they become very full. The animal feels discomfort because of it and they drag their bum to try to relieve the pressure and pain caused by these full anal sacs. We don’t see cats dragging their bum as often because they try to solve the problem by licking. If your cat licks his bum a lot, more than what would be needed for normal grooming purposes, he may be experiencing problems with his anal glands. Sometimes cats will lick themselves bald around their anus when they are very irritated by the problem. Dogs will lick or bite at those sacs too but scooting is a more common manifestation of the problem for them. When you take your dog to be groomed normaly the groomer will drain the anal sacs for you. The problem is this pressure is supposed to be relieved naturaly when the dog ellimantes, when the sacs are drained by us, the glands become lazy and release on their own less and less. So the more you have them drained the more they will fill up, its a catch 22 basically that just has to be done. The vet can drain the sacs as well and if you ask them will probably be glad to show you how to drain them yourself and then when you notice the dog dragging his rear, you know its time to drain those sacs!

Kingston

I'd like everyone to meet Kingston! He's a 5-month old maltatzu (mom is a shih tzu, dad is a maltese). Kingston is about to start our puppy class! So everyone welcome Kingston to the family! Mai Nguyen and Jacob Mangum are the proud parents of Kingston, so welcome them to the family of dog owners! YAY! Dogs Rule!