Chattering: What Is This Bizarre Behaviour?

Greyhounds have a lot of adorable and quirky behaviours, but they aren’t always understood!  One such behaviour is chattering!

There  are lots of different reasons for a hound to chatter their teeth!   We’ve had many a call from new hound owners panicking that their hound  is so cold that they’re teeth are chattering…but it’s often that they’re  just excited!

For us experienced  noodle horse servants, we know that they like to be contradictory in  just about everything they do.  So, while they most often chatter their  teeth because they’re excited, happy or in anticipation of a walk, treat  or their dinner…they also do it when they’re nervous, anxious,  overstimulated, and yes, they can also do it because they are cold!    Knowing their personality and individual quirks help us differentiate as  to whether the chatter is a good thing or a bad thing!

Some  hounds chatter their teeth exceptionally loudly, others more subtly,  and it can be very endearing (especially when it’s a happy chatter!)…but  there is one particular instance in which it is not quite so  endearing…and that’s when they’re licking wee off the floor or the bums  of other hounds!

This behaviour  is much more prevalent amongst our beloved boy dogs, they’ll scent  something on the floor, give it a lick, or will get right on up in there  when sniffing a lady dog and give that a lick instead…then start  chattering and frothing at the mouth.  Much to the embarrassment of the  owner!  

Believe it or not, this  isn’t just your hound being inappropriate, or somewhat disgusting, there  is a genuine reason for this behaviour!

While  it may look strange, be somewhat peculiar, and most likely give you the  ick, it’s a perfectly normal part of canine behaviour called the  Flehmen Response.

When a hound,  or any animal, encounters an intriguing scene (usually the pheromones in  urine), a casual sniff just isn’t enough.  They need to deep dive and  investigate that scent for every single drop of information it holds!   For those pheromones communicate a lot of information about the  animal(s) that marked that spot, or in directly interacting with another  animal.

Now, this behaviour is  not unique to dogs.  A great many mammals do this, but it is much more  obvious and comical in other animals such as horses, goats and cats  where they curl back their upper lip to expose their front teeth for  several seconds while inhaling!  It looks somewhat more dramatic and  entertaining than a drooly chatter, but the purpose of it is the same.

We  all know that dogs have a far superior sense of smell than us humans,  but they also have an additional way of taking in information from  scents.  Dogs, like many other animals have a specialised structure in  the roof of their mouth, that is linked to the mouth via a channel just  behind the upper incisors.  It is called the Vomeronasal Organ (blue on  the graphic), otherwise known as the Jacobson’s Organ.  This structure  is particularly sensitive to pheromones and is a secondary sensory  system.  The organ sends signals to the brain, in a different manner  than what is simply sniffed and taken in through the olfactory system  (pink on the graphic).  The signals are received, and processed, by the  olfactory bulb (purple on the graphic).  This bulb is about the size of a  plum in dogs, compared to our measly human raisins.

The  bulb interprets the information, which allows the dog to identify,  differentiate and react to the different smells, even if the scent is  old or heavily diluted!  

Long  story short, the chattering is an intake of additional information, the  drooling is suggested as a way of helping pass the scent molecules along  to the Jacobson’s.  

So, the  next time your dog is licking lampposts, or is getting a little bit too  intimate with another dog, don’t tell them off or drag them away.  They  are on an important information gathering mission!