Strange behavior... Do your dogs ever do this?

[mbc1963]

I've never seen another dog do this, but I've seen it now 4 or 5 times with Buddy. The first two times it happened was within months of my getting him, and the last two times have been in the last couple days.

 

When Buddy is particularly interested in something - a dog he loves or a very enticing smell, I guess - he "chatters" his lower jaw up and down fairly quickly. It looks like he's having a seizure, but he's not... it stops when he moves away from the exciting object. It's almost like his teeth are chattering, bit it's more slow, maybe a couple of up/down movements a second. This past week, I've noticed him doing it while very interested in some sort of smell in the brush. I'm not sure if he's picking up body scent or urine scent from another animal. It seems to go along with his attentive sniffing, and looks as if he's "tasting" the air in tiny short bursts with his mouth.

 

Weird! He hasn't done it in two years, and then twice this week. I wonder if there are coyotes or something else exciting visiting our area?

 

Has anyone else ever seen this sort of thing, and does anyone have an explanation?

 

Thanks!

 

Mary

[Guest pax]

I've never seen another dog do this, but I've seen it now 4 or 5 times with Buddy. The first two times it happened was within months of my getting him, and the last two times have been in the last couple days.

 

When Buddy is particularly interested in something - a dog he loves or a very enticing smell, I guess - he "chatters" his lower jaw up and down fairly quickly. It looks like he's having a seizure, but he's not... it stops when he moves away from the exciting object. It's almost like his teeth are chattering, bit it's more slow, maybe a couple of up/down movements a second. This past week, I've noticed him doing it while very interested in some sort of smell in the brush. I'm not sure if he's picking up body scent or urine scent from another animal. It seems to go along with his attentive sniffing, and looks as if he's "tasting" the air in tiny short bursts with his mouth.

 

Weird! He hasn't done it in two years, and then twice this week. I wonder if there are coyotes or something else exciting visiting our area?

 

Has anyone else ever seen this sort of thing, and does anyone have an explanation?

 

Thanks!

 

Mary

 

 

 

My terrierX mutt used to do it. She *always* did it when she had a tick on her. I'd see her do it, check, and sure enough...(and she was on preventative.)

 

I've never seen another dog do it, until I saw Nash do it two days ago. I checked him and didn't find a tick. It made me feel kinda happy, though.

 

My mutt lived until a nice old age with no dramatic health issues.

[Guest Rockie's mum]

Rockie does that sometimes when he sniffs at stuff when he's out, lampposts and plants and things,

I've always thought it's just been a really interesting smell he come across.

His teeth just kind of chatter for a few seconds, then it stops.

[Rosanne]

I know several dogs that do this when excited. My mom's dog does it sometimes, my oldest BC's half-brother does it a lot when he's warming up on the practice jump. It's just an oddity. One whole family of dogs does it, actually.

[Guest WoobiesMom]

My Airedale did it when excited or playing. We'd call him "The Terrible Teeth Snapping Terrier!" because it looked very intimidating and aggressive but it wasn't a warning or anything, just happiness.

[SoloRiver]

http://neuro.fsu.edu/~mmered/index.htm

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomeronasal_organ

 

http://www.vet.upenn.edu/schoolresources/c...emosensory.html

[border_collie_crazy]

Misty does it when she is upset(if she gets in trouble, or tells off another dog) I always thought it was odd, she will chatter her jaw so much she foams. scared the heck out of me the first sime I saw her foaming at the mouth lol

[Devi]

I have a dog who used to resource guard. He would suddenly attack the other dog and when pulled off of the other dog, his teeth would chatter like that for a few minutes. He would also shake and his ears would go down. It was the picture of pitiful. He never did it in any other situation, and since his resource guarding is a thing of the past, he hasn't frantically chattered his teeth since.

[Beth G]

I've seen this alot in greyhounds when they get excited to see someone.

 

My friend's greyhound, Bean, used to do it when she would see me come to the door to dog sit her.

[Bo Peep]

My old male did it every time a gal was in heat- annoying. Or disgustingly when he sniffed some pee

[mbc1963]

Very interesting! I've never had a dog who did this before, but I guess it's not uncommon after all.

 

Here's a video of a golden pup doing the thing I described, in case you want to see it. (There are other videos of dogs whose teeth actually chatter like a jackhammer!)

 

 

Mary

[AK dog doc]

Ah, yes... the good old VNO. This has been responsible for any number of confused observers, so you're in very good company. Some dogs are so into it that they look like they're having facial seizures (sometimes also known as "chewing gum seizures" because the dog not only looks like it's chewing gum, but it sometimes "foams at the mouth" from working its saliva into a froth.) It DOES look pretty odd if you haven't seen it before, and many dogs are less obvious with it - and/or many owners are less observant of the facial tics that sometimes accompany this. Chewing gum seizures are actually a typical form of seizure disorder associated with prior distemper infection, and are extremely hard to successfully treat - but mercifully they are also quite rare, so the vast majority of the dogs with periodic jaw-chattering are just kinda into their noses.

 

My cats will pick up on an interesting scent and then sort of pause, stare off in an unfocused sort of way, part their jaws just slightly, and inhale in short huffs through the mouth as if they're doing a tasting of some exotic wine. They may or may not make subtle, approving sorts of noises in their throats at the same time, something between a purr and a meow. This is sometimes followed by rolling or rubbing on the spot where the scent was found. Finn, OTOH, does a subtle jaw-chatter, accompanied by a slightly glazed expression, as if his entire brain is focused on the scent and all other functions have temporarily ceased. (He is more inclined to pee on the spot where the scent was found than to roll on it; apparantly Finn lacks the more elegant connaisseur behaviors. No wonder the cats find him boorish.)

 

I've seen horses, sheep and goats do the flehmen behavior... they pick up an interesting scent and flip their upper lip sort of up and inside-out, to present it (and the scent) directly in front of their nostrils. Stallions will sometimes toss their heads and/or sort of clap their lips together as if considering the import of this information, and some will grind their teeth or make grimaces while investigating the scent. I've seen quite a lot of horses doing flehmen behaviors when offered a new kind of food... once with a horse who tried the owner's hot tea. (Don't ask me why she was sharing it.)

[WyoBC]

I bet it's funny to see them do it.

 

The first time Black Jack air snapped it scared me to death and I thought he was starting to bite.

[Aussie_Dog]

Jake only does it when we're playing tug-o-war and I've stopped tugging (but, really, I think he's just anticipating my suddenly jumping back into the game...). He holds the sock, hanging his head low, teeth chattering, waiting for me to yank the sock again.

[Tranquilis]

I've seen horses, sheep and goats do the flehmen behavior... they pick up an interesting scent and flip their upper lip sort of up and inside-out, to present it (and the scent) directly in front of their nostrils. Stallions will sometimes toss their heads and/or sort of clap their lips together as if considering the import of this information, and some will grind their teeth or make grimaces while investigating the scent. I've seen quite a lot of horses doing flehmen behaviors when offered a new kind of food... once with a horse who tried the owner's hot tea. (Don't ask me why she was sharing it.)

In big cats, you'll get what looks like they're making a "stinky face" - In humans it'd be the grimace that we make when something really smells horrible, but in the big cats, they're actually trying to get maximum exposure to the scent. Looks funny as heck.

 

Typical example.

[setsail]

Jackson does it with the frisbee in his mouth. I thought before he was overheated or panting too hard, but it was too fast for that. Sounds funny when he won't drop the frisbee so hear his teeth chattering on the disc. But yeah, after about 3-4 throws he starts or if we are working on something new and he gets overstimulated.