The short answer
No, dogs cannot be transgender because gender is a social and psychological construct too complex for dogs to understand.
The long answer
Want to meet an interesting Pug?
In veterinary school I had the distinct honor of meeting a very sweet Pug I will call Callie. Callie’s owner initially thought Callie was female, but with time, a little pink nub that looked like a pencil eraser appeared from Callie’s vulva.
The nub became painful and inflamed from sitting down, so Callie came to see us at the veterinary teaching hospital. Upon examination, this nub turned out to be something called a pseudopenis or an os clitoridis—an anatomical hybrid between a clitoris and a penis. (Os means bone. More on penis bones in a later post.)
Due to the discomfort (yes, ouch), we (meaning a faculty surgeon with great skill + me with wide eyes) removed the os clitoridis, along with Callie’s seeming ovaries. I say "seeming" because under a microscope, these fleshy funbits actually turned out to be ovotestes—a blend between ovary and testicle.
So that was neat!
After we all learned a lot more than we ever bargained for during our surgery rotation, Callie went home happy and healthy. Best. Day. Ever.
So was Callie transgender?
When I shared this story with my girlfriend Emma (now wife—wahoo!), I said that Callie was transgender, but Emma, being a liberal arts major, corrected me.
Gender is a social construct, she said, not to be confused with biological sex. Because dogs do not have sufficient intelligence and self-awareness to maintain personal identities, they cannot have a gender. It is therefore more accurate to say that Callie was intersex—both male and female.
Wow. The knowledge was really pouring in that day, wasn't it?
Something everyone should know: sex versus gender
Let's review.
Sex is biological, referring to physical characteristics such as chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs.
Gender is a social construct, involving roles, behaviors, and identities that society attributes to people and people apply to themselves, which can vary across different cultures and change over time.
Dogs have a sex but they do not have a gender. Dogs with indeterminate sex organs may be considered intersex.
Got it.
Let's learn more.
How many dogs are intersex?
Veterinary medicine tends to suffer from a lack of scientific studies in general compared with human medicine, and rare conditions receive less attention than more common conditions because they are harder to study and results impact care for fewer animals.
Sadly, intersexuality in dogs has also been understudied due to social bias among so-called objective scientists. Just look at this quote from the 1976 review article "Intersexuality in the Dog," by W.C.D. Hare (bolding my own).
Forty-eight cases [of intersex dogs], and another 52 known to be drug-induced, have been reported, but it would be foolish to assume that these are representative of the true occurrence of the condition, because the majority of veterinarians in practice are notoriously reluctant to submit their observations for publication.
Turns out vets back in the 70s were too darned red-faced to own up to finding a pseudopenis here or there out of fear that...what...their golf buddies might find out?
Anyway. We digress. We make jokes. We move on.
And let's not cancel this entire publication just yet, especially considering this paper appears to be the only review (still!) on the topic, making Dr. Hare something of a maverick.
Returning to the answer, Dr. Hare concludes that the data are too limited to make an estimate about the prevalence of intersex dogs. In other words, nobody knows how many dogs like Callie are out there.
Even in the human literature, where more data are available, the estimated prevalence of intersex individuals varies 100-fold, from 0.018% to 1.7%, suggesting that nobody really knows.
As in many of life's mysteries, I'm guessing the truth lies somewhere in between.
Can I pick my dog's gender?
This is an interesting question because it is a moral one, meaning no objectively "true" answer is available. Rational arguments can be made from several angles. Let's consider them one at a time.
Answer #1: No, because that doesn't make sense
The straightforward response, based on my own answer above, is no, you cannot pick your dog's gender, whether your dog is intersex or not, because a dog cannot have a gender.
The question itself is flawed. It's like asking if you can clip a bear's wings. Bears do not have wings. You therefore cannot clip them. (Weird example.)
Answer #2: No, because it may have negative consequences for people
This argument approaches the answer through a moral lens. Assigning gender to a dog may subtly impact human communities by trivializing serious concepts like gender identity, which is significant for many individuals navigating their own gender experiences.
Misusing terms like gender for pets can also blur the distinctions between sex and gender, potentially leading to confusion and undermining educational efforts about these important issues.
Answer #3: No, because it may have negative consequences for dogs
Some argue that anthropomorphizing dogs in any way, including assigning them a gender identity, risks negative consequences, including shortcomings in appropriate pet care.
For example, treating your dog like a furry little person might lead you to buy them lots of cute clothes, which they do not care about at all, instead of taking them on regular walks, which are essential for their mental and physical health.
In other words, dogs have dog needs, and as responsible dog owners/guardians/parents, we need to accept and meet those needs, not change them to human needs.
(But who am I to judge anyone for anthropomorphizing? I wrote a book about a bunch of dogs acting like people.)
Answer #4: Yes, because dogs aren't humans
One might dismiss the above concerns as the products of an overly sensitive ethical imagination, and note that we are capable of distinguishing humans from dogs.
We do all sorts of things to dogs—like expecting them to eat food off the ground, for example—that would be unacceptable with people, and these acts do not serve as tacit support for the same treatment of people.
Genders (and identities in general) are typically assigned to dogs regardless of their awareness or comprehension of such. (Many boy dogs wear blue collars while girl dogs wear pink.) While assigning a nonbinary gender to an intersex dog (i.e., "they") may seem like a more progressive choice, it technically violates the concerns of answer #2 about using any gender in dogs at all.
Final thoughts: Can a dog be trans?
In considering whether you can pick your dog's gender—whether it is cisgender or transgender—it largely depends on what is meant by "can."
If it refers to the physical possibility and social practice, then yes, people do and can continue to assign genders to pets as part of naming and caring for them.
However, if it refers to whether it is philosophically or ethically justified, the answers become more nuanced and depend on one's views about animals' rights, human cultural practices, and the implications of those practices.
Each argument offers a different lens through which to consider the implications of such an action, reflecting broader discussions about the intersection of human societal norms and animal treatment.