Obtaining a plausible explanation for dogs lifting their hind legs during liquid discharge and probing into the possible reasons for their obsession towards hydrants, citing theorems associated with same
Abstract:
This paper attempts to explain why all members of the dog family lift their legs while urinating, citing several reasons. It also analyzes whether the affinity for hydrants, as seen in the predominant domesticated types, has been derived from ancient occurrences with any other member of the family or has merely been a sign of adaptation to the surrounding world.
Introduction:
The study of animal behavior has been receiving more light of late, with quality research being undertaken in several parts of the world. Analysts have come to the extent that they could now be accepted into herds by flawlessly imitating the body language of the species under study. But certain other phenomena such as bird migratory patterns is still under the scientific microscope.
The phenomenon of dogs urinating by lifting their hind legs is a much observed site the world over. The sequences of physical actions preceding the life process is very much unique to the K9 family and has aroused a lot of interest in budding researchers .That two hard core engineering undergrads with set academic goals and pursuits had written this paper on the night of a cycle test but reinforces this statement.
Significant terms:
Eocene epoch: It is part of the Tertiary Period in the Cenozoic Era, and lasted from about 54.8 to 33.7 million years ago. It is believed to have been the period that saw the evolution of the earliest ancestors of the dog family. It is henceforth understood that any citation to chronology traces back to this period.
Analyzing dog posture during liquid waste discharge and citing reasons for the same:
Theory 1: Dogs as accurate projectile launchers:
This theorem considers the domesticated canine as an intelligent species keen on launching projectiles of liquid waste at appropriate angles so as to achieve maximum range and maximum spread of the waste with distance in order to achieve maximum area for quick evaporation.
Fig: Trajectory of the liquid discharge from the dog towards the hydrant. R is maximum when θ=45
When not lifted, canine projectiles are obstructed by the underside of their belly and their front legs. Lifting the hind legs enables a change in orientation of the projectile launch through an angle of ninety degrees, giving for larger attainable ranges with little or no obstruction. From the figure it is clear that range is largest when the angle of projection is 45degrees.
Although this theorem puts forth a logical solution for the process, it still does not explain why many other members of the dog family do the same.
Theory 2: Duplicating actions
In a drastic deviation from theory 1, theory 2 looks for ancestral occurrences that might have been passed on from generation to generation. The present day K9s might have observed other animals (not necessarily from the dog family) initiating similar
sequences of physical movements while engaging in liquid egest discharge. In this regard, a survey of animals positioning themselves in the same manner as that of the dog while urinating, was taken and the respective chronological lifelines were traced to their ancestors.
It was found that most of these species had dated back to the dog
family at some point of time.
Theory 3: Urine marking
This theory explores the territorial behavior of male dogs, to mark a territory for themselves, warning other dominant males from straying into their share of the land.
This has been proved in recent times. Since a larger spread of the egest is obtained in this form of discharge, larger area can be covered.
Following are some theorems presented in accordance with this phenomenon:
Theorem: All dogs lift their legs while urinating
Note: The above theorem and those to follow shall be proved using an experiment mentioned below:
Experiment:
For aiding analysis, 30 adult dogs, of different breeds, were given food containing high salt and liquid levels and were observed over a period of 12 hours. Salt levels and temperature of the liquid egest were tabulated during this period. Stress levels of the dogs were monitored once every 2 minutes.
Theorem 1 can be proved by simple observation and by grossly differing the breeds so that all or majority of the participants have strikingly unique body features relevant to the experiment being performed.
Why Hydrants? :
The members of the dog family existing today can be broadly classified as Coyotes, Wolves, Foxes, Jackals, Dholes, Raccoon dogs and bush dogs. And almost all of them are red - green colour blind. Although they have a larger perception or ‘view’ of the world, their color patterns are minus red and green components. They see everything in shades of blue. Thus, a hydrant could probably be perceived by them as a more pleasing object to egest liquid waste on. And since dogs have more rod cells than humans, they have excellent night vision allowing them to brandish their target with urine even at night.
Fig: Taken from Dr.P’s Dog Training, (Mark Plonsky,Ph.D.)
However the limitations of this theory lie in the fact that it does not single out the hydrant from several other associates like lamp posts, long stemmed shrubs, fencing, tree barks, to name a few.
Theorem 2: The affinity of dog pee towards hydrants is universal.
Proof: The experiment was conducted in 20 countries with no change of dogs at any stage. It was observed that dog breeds hailing from countries where hydrants were commonplace, could not adapt themselves to supplements like fencing and transformers as shown by the tabulated stress levels. Also, all participants, including dogs from third world countries were found to adapt themselves quickly to hydrants in every country.
Lemma 1: The adaptability of any dog towards an object for waste disengage is proportional to consistency in the value of ð2X/ð2Y with respect to time of the base, Where
X: displacement in the X direction
Y: displacement in the Y direction
Proof: Using theorem 1 which emphasizes universal hydrant appeal, experiment 1 was repeated with hydrants of different base dimensions. Circular base hydrants received more participant attention. A graph of ð2X/ð2Y versus time was plotted and was almost constant in case of the circular base hydrant.
Conclusion:
Further work is expected in extensive psycho analysis of dogs, keeping in mind the myriad variations of the target (from the assumed hydrant) from country to country. Localizing the associated theory to as little variations (breeds) as possible would greatly aid further research.
People it just lifts 2 keep itself clean why do u ever care about dat LOLLLLLLLLLLL :)
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