# Teeth Chattering



## KaiserDrake (Apr 11, 2008)

If my dogs ever meet a new dog and they either sniff their behind or happen upon their urine/feces and smell it, my dogs teeth begin to chatter rapidly. Does anyone know what the motivation to this is?

They don't act aggressive towards the other dog when this happens, but seem to maybe be slightly nervous. Is it just excitement? Maybe a natural chemical that is in the waste that just does something to them? A catnip for dogs?

Help me out! Need to know if its aggressive so I can work on stopping it then or if I can relax and let them chatter away.


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## Dog_Shrink (Sep 29, 2009)

Dogs are one of the few creatures that are actually able to "taste" scent. They are equipped with a special scent gland in their mouth called a Johnston's (or Johnson's) organ.










The lump right behind the flea teeth that looks like a pea behind the teeth is the organ. When dogs push a scent into this organ which leads directly to the nasal cavity to enhance a scent, and it is usually a urine scent, the teeth "chatter". 

Skeletal pic of a dogs mouth









You can see the holes in the roof of the mouth that lead right to the nasal passage and over 30 million scent receptors. 

Lions and tigers do this too. Let him chatter away... it just means he tasted pee  and is in no way related to a behavior you need to stop.


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## Kay Weber (Oct 21, 2009)

Our male dogs' teeth chatter around female dogs in heat. I've never heard the females do it.


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## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

Ha Dog shrink beat me too it...
LOL
Many animals do this, it's most obvious in household cats..if a scent really catches their attention they will sit there with their mouth half open, looking like weirdos..what they are doing is pulling more scent in through their mouths. If the scent is especially exciting or during an event that is exciting (like your dogs meeting new dogs!) the teeth may chatter at this time as well.

It is NOT aggressive. 
It IS over stimulation so you do want to make sure the greetings stay relatively brief and well mannered so that no proctology exams upset the other dog..lol.


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## Dog_Shrink (Sep 29, 2009)

Cracker said:


> Ha Dog shrink beat me too it...
> LOL


AND included pictures  Proctology exams..BOL... that would be bad...The dominant felmale italian hound we lost in August would do this so it is not gender specific.


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## MegaMuttMom (Sep 15, 2007)

Cherokee's teeth chatter every once in a while when he is really excited to see someone. He doesn't jump and stuff but, you can tell he is beside himself when this happens.


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