Pheromones are chemical compounds that allow communication among dogs through the olfactory system. When sexual behavior is affected, the compounds are called dog appeasing pheromones. Pheromones arise from several tissue sources; the most prominent ones for dogs are sebaceous glands, the reproductive tract, and the urinary tract.
Dog appeasing pheromones are important for the attraction of the male to the female at the time of sexual receptivity. Sexual attractiveness of the female evolves from the pheromones that she elicits on a limited, cyclical basis in association with estrus.
The classic way for males to delineate their territory has been for them to mark the area with urine. In general, dog appeasing pheromones that affect sexual behavior tend to have a musk type of odor.
Some of the first experiments that demonstrated the potency of males odors to influence reproductive behavior were done in mice. One syndrome, called the Whitten effect, involved the synchronization of estrus in female mice through the sudden introduction of a male. The effect of the pheromones in this case is to stimulate the synthesis and release of gonadotropins.
Appeasing pheromones in dogs can account for some of the effect of the male. More recent studies, however, have shown that sight of the male by the female as well as physical contact are important factors that influence gonadotropin secretion and thus ovarian activity.
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