Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert Alan J Turner, SATS LL1

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Elizabeth wrote at 2008-03-09 16:35:03
This posting was very helpful to me.  Recently our friends brought over two 8-wk-old Westies they had just adopted from a rescue earlier that day, and our 1-yr-old Alaskan Husky (also from a rescue) was salivating unbelievably!  It was almost like she was foaming at the mouth; she was dripping all over the floor and the puppies and us-- it was pretty unnerving.  I wonder if Chiba came from a rescue pound when he was a puppy-- if there is some kind of connection there.  But I also think the memory stimulus of the puppies with an earlier time in the older dogs' lives sounds pretty reasonable, too.



Thanks!

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Canine psychologist wrote at 2008-07-14 03:17:46
The Person above has the right idea but his hypothesis is wrong.

i am a psychology honors major and i do not believe  that the age of the canine has anything to do with the learning or motivation of the animal. (sounds a little too much like Freud,  *who has mostly been discredited apart from his defense mechanisms) anyways, it might not be so simple.here are some of the variables that are connected to the dogs salivation.



1. the dog needs to salivate in order to groom the puppy. therefore, he produces more salivation when grooming.

2. The only way dogs know how to heal themselves is to lick the wound. which also requires salivation.

3. depending on how often this grooming phenomenon occurs will result in generalizing to the environment.

4. the dog also enjoys grooming the puppy. the motivation of grooming the puppy will cause the body to prepare to salivate.

5. if the dog is constantly in a good mood, and when he is in a good mood he is mostly grooming the puppy, then the dog will salivate in that mood.



i could go on and on but i dont know the environment of the animal. i could  also

help you extinct any type of unwanted behavior but time is money.

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Sarah Auld wrote at 2010-03-05 18:27:33
My 10mth old lab has been salivating all day since we picked up our new lab puppy.  She's never done it previously.  Very strange but you're not alone.

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