"checking the mail"

[George Thompson]

>From an article in the NYTimes of July 11, 2004 (City Section, p. 7, col. 1)on a stray dog:
"The dog is often spotted by residents in the morning, right around commuting time.  It ambles up an avenue, sniffing bushes where other dogs have marked -- "checking the mail," as they say in dog parlance."

Is this expression commonly used in people parlance?  I have cats, myself.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.