Dr. Jon Klingborg

For over a century, there has been a tremendous debate regarding human behavior and personality—neatly called “Nature versus Nurture.” The central question is ‘what is more important to determining personality—a person’s genetics or how he was raised?”

Though the jury is still out regarding people, this debate was settled a long time ago in the animal kingdom. Anyone who has cared for creatures of any kind knows that animals are born with the foundation of their ‘personality.’

In other words, a pet’s nature tends to closely resemble the parents’ natures. Anxious animal parents are more likely to have anxious offspring. Our ancestors understood this by domesticating pets through selectively breeding the social animals in order to create more social offspring.

Ever wonder why dogs and cats are always smelling each other’s rear ends? If you guessed that they were sniffing for us-- the anal glands-- then you are probably right. Anal glands don’t like to toot our own horn, but we are very important in most animals. Many creatures use the fluid we produce for marking territory or self-defense. (The skunk always wins “Anal Gland of the Year.”)

In dogs and cats, we are located on the lower right and lower left hand sides of the anus. This strategic location means that your pet will stop defecating if we get too full. And then he will be constipated and have a sore bottom. Double Ouch!

A constant “whoom-whoom-whoom” could be heard outside the exam room. It sounded like a racecar hurtling around a track. Slowly opening the door, I saw the yellow comet called Rocket, a four-month old Labrador, as he completed another lap. His owner, Ray Tyred looked at me with a helpless expression on his face.

“He has a lot of energy,” he explained. Ray slumped in the chair and seemed depressed. “Too much energy. Running, digging holes---I should have named him Trencher.” Rocket slowed down long enough to give his owner’s hand a quick lick and then accelerated again.
“Where did you find Rocket?”

“A guy named Joe Hunter breeds them. I heard he has the best dogs. I got pick of the litter.”

“And how did you pick Rocket?”

“Buttons” is the sort of dog whose feet never hit the ground. Being of fine breeding, she is the queen of all dogs-- Buttons is a lap dog.  Buttons views her world from a throne exactly four feet above the ground, nestled snuggly in her owner’s adoring arms.  She has the good life: a human companion who usually manages to feed her on time, a bed by the fireplace, and a profound misunderstanding of the word “no.”      

    One fine spring day, our canine heroine began to itch.  It was a deep, insatiable itchiness, one that wouldn’t go away no matter how much she scratched, nibbled, or chewed.  Buttons was 5 years old (though she claimed to be under 30 in people years),  and this incurable, mind-numbing itchiness  had never happened before!