HIGHTAIL EXPRESS PROBLEMS SERIES

The behavior appears to be common, but NOT universal.Ģ.

Both males and females over mark (but note that many people commented that many of their dogs never overmarked). There were 14 instances that I counted of males over marking the urine of unfamiliar dogs (2 “dominant,” 3 “not dominant” and 9 “unknown”) and 15 of females over marking unfamiliar dogs (6 “Dominant,” 3 “Not dominant” and 5 “Unknown.”)ġ. – Not surprisingly, there were fewer reports of this, and the sex of the urine marked was usually unknown. MALES AND FEMALES OVER MARKING UNFAMILIAR DOGS – There were 15 reports of females who were “not dominant” over marking familiar males or females, and 2 reports of “unknown” social status females over marking familiar females. – 2 “dominant females” over marked the urine of a familiar female, none over marked the urine of familiar males. – There were 17 instances of male dogs who social status was not known or stated, who over marked the urine of familiar males or females. – There were 14 instances of “not dominant or submissive” dogs over marking the urine of familiar males or females. – No “dominant” male dogs were reported out of 91 comments to over mark over the urine of familiar males or females. So, given that digression, here’s a summary of your comments: (Note one comment asked a great question: “How much of a behavior … is true submission and how much is lack of confidence in the ability to win?” Great question, because that’s actually the EXACT definition of the terms! It’s ONLY about individual’s judgments about who is likely to win and how that informs their decisions about who gets a resource.)Īrgh, I didn’t want to get lost in a discussion about social status, especially given that it’s a mine field, but again, it’s hard to talk about over marking without bringing it in. I don’t want to get too lost in the controversy of social status here, but I will summarize that 1) the term “dominance” is misused and misunderstood relentlessly, 2) has not been discarded by researchers who study behavior in wild animals and 3) all it means, if use correctly is: who predictably would get the bone/toy/best place to sleep between 2 individuals if they both wanted it equally.

HIGHTAIL EXPRESS PROBLEMS SERIES

I address it at length in earlier posts on Augand in a series of posts starting on March 31st, 2010. And yes yes yes, of course, this is a complicated and controversial topic. The other categories were “not dominant,” if the writer used those words or in some way stated that, in their belief, the dog was not highest in social status in a group of dogs, and “unknown” if the writer didn’t address that topic, or directly stated that they didn’t know. Aware of all the obvious problems, but believing there might be some value in it, I categorized a dog as “dominant” if the writer used that term or described the dog as the one who had priority access to preferred resources. This is obviously the fuzziest part of the project–so fuzzy for so many reasons that we can’t begin to call this “research,” but given that the traditional explanation of over marking has been that it is most often done by a “dominant” dog, it seemed impossible to ignore completely. Finally, I recorded the writer’s description about the social relationship of their dogs. I recorded if the urine first deposited was from a familiar or an unfamiliar dog. First, an explanation: I recorded sex of over marker and over markee if known, or noted it as ‘unknown” if necessary. Here’s what I came up with when summarizing your comments. ? Maybe total confusion means we’re getting somewhere? But you know how the learning curve often gets steeper once you’re making some progress (same thing happens in dog training, right)….

Anneke Lisberg’s research on urine marking, I now am completely flummoxed about what it all might mean. After reading every single one of your comments, recording them by sex, familiarity and social status (maybe, sort of, more on that later) and comparing it to Dr.

Hightail express problems