A friend of mine said that my 2 year old korthals griffon was dog transing when she walked him. What is dog transing and is it a problem needing correcting?
Mary W – Birmingham, UK
Dog transing is a common misspelling of dog trancing, particularly amongst us UK dog owners. So what is dog trancing then?
Well dog trancing is actually quite the phenomenon when it comes to dog behaviour. The ‘trancing’ comes from when a dog walks under an object or objects that lightly touch the dog’s back. This puts the dog into a ‘trance like’ state, hence the phrase, dog trancing.
Normally dogs of all breeds will be seen dog trancing at some point in their life and usually bushes, leaves or low hanging branches are their tool of choice used to graze gently across their back similar to our member’s lovely English Bull Terrier below
Is dog trancing healthy?
Dog trancing is perfectly healthy and by no means is it something any UK dog owner should be concerned about. Whilst dog behaviourists cannot quite decipher why dogs perform this behaviour no matter the breed, it is clearly an instinct of theirs and not something that will affect their health in anyway.
Can you train a dog to perform dog trancing?
Absolutely, although why you would want to doesn’t appear apparent to me personally. As is our mantra at UK Dog owner, any dog can be trained to do pretty much anything if handled correctly. Get that positive reinforcement going and your dog will probably find they enjoy trancing anyway much like most dogs realise naturally without training.
Final thoughts
I personally enjoy a nice gentle massage when possible as I am sure many of our readers do too. So my best guess for why dogs are trancing is this is something similarly rewarding for the dogs. Perhaps that brief 10/15 minutes they may spend trancing relieves their stresses from a day of chasing cars and pigeons in between naps!
