What's this very weird thing my dog does?

[DeborahAnnabelToo]

She has several boulders along every regular walk we take her on that she goes absolutely mad scraping and "digging" them with her front paws, yelping excitedly all the while Sometimes she also licks them with a glazed, euphoric expression on her face. It's really, really odd! She also does a similar thing with rocks in water in the same place on certain walks - jumping repeatedly on them and scrabbling at them, yipping away. People stop to stare at her What is going on!?

[BigSpringy]

My guess would be something along the lines of these boulders (or the first boulder she started doing this with) were used as pee posts by males. Especially nice stinky intact males.

Over time she has enjoyed the activity and enjoyed any attention/laughter that it caused in her humans so now it's just her fun thing to do?

[BigSpringy]

Just to expand this "she also licks them with a glazed, euphoric expression on her face" sounds like she is licking pee and moving it to the roof of her mouth to scent the pheromones - something more common in males but females can/sometimes do it too.

Above the upper surface of the mouth sits the vomeronasal organ that is used to detect tiny molecules that are too small to be detected just by ordinary sniffing. Licking the scent wets it, making it possible for the molecules to pass into the organ. So when a dog licks as scent, this is what they are doing.

Of course, there could also be another explaination...

[Sunnydayshereatlast]

Our ddog swims in grass.. Shoves her head into the grass with front legs folded against her streamlined and swims along..
Last nights 'length'..

[Mrsjayy]

My dog does this but on our garden path. He does it when he is stressed or if I'm talking to my neighbours. I have no clue what he gets from it sometimes I have to stop him I worry he is going to wear his tongue away!

[DeborahAnnabelToo]

that's an interesting theory @BigSpringy! Would the whole hormone thing still be the case when she's spayed?

I wonder sometimes if it's a bit stressy as she ses so uber focused and frantic when she does it!

[Mrsjayy]

We had a behaviourist the dog is a rocket has a few issues and she said it was probably a release for him but try And distract so he doesn't get to obsessed, he did it at our last house too

[BigSpringy]

If she is scenting then spayed status won't make a difference. Dogs doing this are often very focussed and their eyes often narrow in a relaxed manner.

Licking is also a stress reliever so if you think it is stress triggered then distracting and thinking about what has stressed her is the way to go. There will be other signs of stress, such as frequent yawning, lip licking etc.