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Healthy dog uses nose to cover sick dogs pee with snow. Why?

khh
January 2nd, 2008, 03:38 PM
I have a 14 year old female dog with congestive heart failure. During the last month she has been declining in health, although she's fairly stable. She wants to excercise less, and also does not want to go far from the house to urinate (she used to go out by the back fence). Recently, my other dog (male) seems to monitor where the sick dog pees, and then uses his nose to push snow over her pee. We do have racoons that cross our yard on a daily basis, but no other animals that he would consider a predator. He does not make any attempt to cover her pee when we are walking or in the park -- only in our yard. Does anyone know why he is doing this? Thx.

14+kitties
January 2nd, 2008, 03:43 PM
Awwwww, how sweet. I would think he is doing what he can to protect her from any threats. Makes you cry what animals do for the ones they love. I wish you could say the same about most people. Present company excluded Pets.ca, you guys are all special. :D

hazelrunpack
January 2nd, 2008, 03:58 PM
Welcome to the board. I'm sorry to hear about your girl. I hope she rallies.

As to your question, this is just a way out there guess, but here goes. :o
Dogs can tell a lot about the health of other dogs by how their urine and feces smell. I suspect that as your one dog's heart failure progresses, your other dog is picking up on it. Being social, your male may be attempting to 'protect' your girl by diluting her urine--in essence, making it less apparent that there is an ailing canine in the Pack. Probably, he doesn't have a particular predator or canine invader in mind when he does it--it's likely an instinct to protect his pack by not advertising a member's weakness... :shrug:

Frenchy
January 2nd, 2008, 04:04 PM
omg that's so sweet ! :sad:

happycats
January 2nd, 2008, 05:12 PM
Welcome to the board......and that's so sweet, he's protecting her from threat, I think he only does it there because that,s where she lives, in the park in doesnt' matter because no threat will ever find her there.

maggiemay
January 3rd, 2008, 12:23 AM
awwe dogs are so amazing sometimes. they do some of the weirdest things that have such deep meaning. Sorry to hear about little baby, its hard to watch a dog age... they just do it so quickly it seems.

welcome to the pet owner haven!

joeysmama
January 3rd, 2008, 12:28 AM
That's so sweet !! He's protecting his sister.:lovestruck: