Why Do Dogs Kick the Ground After Pooping?
It’s not tidying up. It’s a status update with dirt flying.
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Your dog finishes their business, turns around, and starts raking the lawn with their back legs like they’re trying to start a motorcycle. Grass flies. Dirt flies. Occasionally your shin gets involved.
It looks like tidying up. It isn’t. Researchers call it ground scratching, and the best evidence says it’s communication.
What Ground Scratching Is
Ground scratching is the backward kicking and scraping some dogs do after they pee or poop. A 2020 paper in Scientific Reports sums it up in one line: dogs “are frequently observed scratching the ground after urination or defecation, which may deposit interdigital scent as well as serve as a visual cue” (McClanahan and Rosell, 2020).
So there are two messages in one move:
- A smell from the paws.
- A sign in the ground.
A vet quoted by Chewy calls kicking and scratching after pooping “a normal behavior for many dogs,” and a behaviour consultant in the same piece says a bout usually lasts from a few seconds to a minute. Short, loud, and very sure of itself.
Your Dog Has Scent Glands in Their Feet
This is the part that surprises people. Dogs carry scent glands in their paws. Ethologist Marc Bekoff explains in Psychology Today that scratching may spread scent from the paws, or spread the odour of whatever the dog just left behind.
Do other dogs actually read that paw scent? A study says yes, at least partly. In the 2020 Scientific Reports study, researchers Kari McClanahan and Frank Rosell presented 34 dogs with scent collected from other dogs’ paws, plus a control sample taken from the ground. Their conclusion: dogs “recognize scent taken from the pedal glands from other dogs,” though how much they use it to tell the sex of the dog who left it “remains unclear.”
A couple of details from that study, because they’re great:
- Male dogs sniffed other males’ paw scent longer than the control sample.
- Female dogs showed a right-nostril preference when sniffing other females’ paw scent.
Your dog’s feet are, in effect, a business card. The lawn is the networking event.
The Visual Mark: Scratches Last Longer Than Smells
The second half of the message is the torn-up turf. Veterinary behaviourist Wailani Sung writes in PetMD that since “urine odors are short-lasting, the slashes on the ground serve as longer-lasting marks to indicate the dog’s presence in the area.”
The same article cites research showing ground scratching happened more often along territorial boundaries in free-ranging dogs. So the scuffed patch at the edge of the park may be less “sloppy dog” and more “signpost.”
Your dog isn’t cleaning up after themselves. They’re signing their work.
What the Classic Study Found
The behaviour has been studied since at least 1979, when Bekoff published a study of free-ranging dogs describing ground scratching as a composite signal: chemical and visual at once. Writing about that work in Psychology Today, he reports that “males ground scratched significantly more than females after marking and males did it significantly more when other dogs could see them do it.”
That audience effect is the tell. If ground scratching were only about hygiene, it wouldn’t matter who was watching. Bekoff also suggests it “may also be an intimidation display,” and PetMD notes a study in which other dogs stayed away from dogs that showed ground scratching.
And, per Bekoff’s post title, there may be some plain “ecstasy” in it. He describes dogs showing “exuberance and satisfaction” while they do it. Some dogs just love a good kick.
What About Burying It?
You’ll see “dogs are trying to cover their poop” in a lot of explainers. Chewy’s article lists a waste-covering instinct among its reasons, along with scent marking and simply wiping dirt off the paws.
The studies above point somewhere else: scent and signal. It’s fine to hold both ideas loosely. What the research doesn’t support is the idea that your dog is embarrassed. They are not embarrassed. They have never been embarrassed.
Should You Stop It?
Usually, no. PetMD’s veterinary behaviourist says there’s “no need to stop your dog from kicking their feet after pooping or peeing unless they kick up a lot of dirt or grass” or kick so hard they hurt their nails or paw pads.
If it’s a problem in a specific spot (the neighbour’s prize flowerbed, say), you don’t need a correction. Try this instead:
- Pick a better toilet spot on walks, with room to kick.
- Move on calmly right after they finish and reward them for walking with you.
- Use a longer leash so they aren’t kicking at your ankles.
Ground scratching is a dog being a dog. No reason to punish talking, even when the talking involves turf. It’s the kind of weird we celebrate: no zaps required.
It’s also not a sign your dog is trying to “dominate” you. It’s dog-to-dog messaging, and if someone has told you otherwise, read The Alpha Myth Won’t Die. Let’s Finish It.
When to Check With Your Vet
If this is new or comes with other changes, get your vet to rule out pain first.
Related weirdness: the post-poop victory lap has its own explainer, Why Do Dogs Get the Zoomies?
Your dumb questions
Is my dog trying to bury it like a cat?
Some explainers mention a covering instinct, but the research on ground scratching focuses on communication: spreading scent from the paws and leaving a visible mark.
My dog kicks grass straight onto my shoes. Is that personal?
Almost certainly not. Your shoes were just downrange.
Should I stop my dog from doing it?
A veterinary behaviourist writing for PetMD says there’s no need, unless your dog is flinging a lot of dirt or kicking hard enough to hurt their nails or pads.
Do only male dogs do this?
No. In a 1979 study of free-ranging dogs, males ground scratched more than females after marking, but females do it too.
The receipts
- Ground Scratching by Dogs: Scent, Sight, and Ecstasy · Psychology Today (Marc Bekoff, PhD), 2019
- Conspecific recognition of pedal scent in domestic dogs · Scientific Reports (McClanahan and Rosell), 2020
- Why Do Dogs Kick After Pooping? · PetMD (Wailani Sung, DVM, DACVB), 2021
- Why Do Dogs Kick the Ground After They Poop? Is This Normal? · Chewy, 2025
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