Celebrity veterinarian Dr Chris Brown has revealed a ‘quirky' trick animal lovers can use to determine a dog or cat's gender.
The Bondi Vet said male dogs and cats tend to use their left paws while females prefer use their right.
While only 13 per cent of humans are left-handed the same can't be said for pets.
Dr Chris said asking a dog to shake paws is a surefire way to tell their sex without having to look between their legs.
He added there is ‘nothing more awkward' than getting a pet's gender wrong in the vet clinic and he was ‘fascinated' to learn the trick.
Dr Chris Brown (pictured) has revealed you can tell a dog or cat's gender by what paw they prefer to use. Males tend to have a dominant left paw while females tend to use their right
‘It's one of the simplest training tricks. But asking a dog to shake hands might be saying a lot more than you think,' the animal doctor said in a blog post.
‘That's because researchers at the University of Sydney found that in both dogs and cats, males prefer to use their left paw while females prefer to use their right to shake.'
If the pooch or kitty doesn't know the shake trick, Dr Chris said there are other ways to observe which paw they prefer.
‘You should still see the same side preference for tasks like reaching under a sofa to grab a treat, flicking off a small piece of tape from their nose or steadying a rolling tennis ball so it doesn't roll away,' he explained.
Dr Chris said to observe which paw your pet uses to play to reach for things and added mos police and guide dogs and left-handed (stock image)
Dr Chris added studies have shown left-pawed dogs are more likely to be used as police or guide dogs.
‘Sure it's not quite as dramatic as some gender reveal parties in 2023 but shaking hands is a lot more effective, cheaper and time efficient!' he said.
‘Don't just try it once, it's a case of best of 10 to be more accurate.'
A study published by Laterality showed at most dogs and cats will chose to use a specific paw.
It was found that found that 78 per cent of cats and 68 per cent of dogs showed either left or right-sided paw preference.
Cats were more likely to have a paw preference than dogs with female felines having greater odds of being right-handed.
