Is it true that there is a bone in the penis of the dog?

Yes, there is a well-developed penile bone (the os penis or baculum) inside the dog’s penis. It is a narrow, tapered bone, about 4 inches (10 cm) long in a large dog, and just under 1/ 2 inch (1 cm) wide. It lies surrounded by expandable spongy tissue and on its lower surface there is a groove In which runs the urethra (the tube which conveys urine to the exterior). Being surrounded by bone on three sides means that the urethra cannot distend very much in this region. Consequently this is one of the two sites where small stones (calculi) which have formed in the bladder, and then been flushed out in the flow of urine, become arrested (the other is the point where the urethra has to make a tight turn around the rear edge of the pelvic bone).

It is believed that the purpose of the os penis is to provide increased rigidity during mating. The dog and cat are the only domesticated mammals with an os penis though many wild mammals have this struc­ture and in some carnivores the female possesses a comparable bone in the clitoris.

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