Male Urination

[StarFox]

I have a question for everyone who has a male dog. My dog is a 9 month old neuterd male. He has never lifted his leg once to urinate. He squats down like females do. I hear that this is better for his hips because he is a larger dog (72pounds). Is there any truth to that? Because he is so young is there a chance that he will change and start to lift his leg when he urinates? Not that I want him too because I prefer him to squat. He also never marks trees or anything else that any other dog has marked, he only goes on our lawn. Just curious about this and wanted some input. Thanks

[julie45]

my dogs have all been neutered and none of them lift there leg, now the oldest one is 7yrs and he still dosent lift is leg.which i am grateful of really.
he is a big dog as he is a rottie.and as yet we have had no trouble with is bach legs or hips.so i dont really know if there is any truth in the fact is that he dont lift is leg, but i do know of other rotties that have had trouble at my dogs age.so fingers crossed it stays that way. :wink:

[bk_blue]

Hummm yes some people.... :roll:

BK lifts his leg and always has, it could be because we have another male dog so they always used to have competitions to see who could wee over each other's scents :roll: . When BK goes to visit the Brat (Tomson) it's very funny- BK is HUGE compared to titchypants Tomson, so he spends all his time trying to outwee BK (when he's not trying to hump his leg)- unsuccessfully I might add. :D

[mouseatthebusstop]

Paddy rarely does in our garden. My 2 females are neutered. When we go for a walk he lifts his leg on every thing :)

[Kaleb124]

Kaleb has lifted his leg maybe 3 times in his life....All three times after a trip to the dog park. But of course he is still young....6 months old, but neutered a 4.5 months.

[DogPaddle]

Kavik didn't start to lift his leg until he was 13 months, now he does all the time outside. Tyr - 9 months or so - didn't start to lift his leg until Kavik was doing it regularly, now he does it occaisionally or it least tries but he has no balanace, Zaphod still doesn't - 4 months.

[Prairie_Gurl]

My german shepherd wasn't neutered, but he never lifted his leg. Maybe that was because I was always on him to not p*$$ on the neighbor's lawns, cars, trees, etc. And he wasn't the alpha dog... my husky has always been the male alpha, and he lifts his leg on everything (not neutered). I want to neuter him, but my parents aren't into it... *sigh* PARENTS!!! but, that's another matter...

[Luka-pop]

I adopted Luka in January at 1yr 1 month old and he had already been neutered. I'm pretty sure he was neutered fairly early. He doesn't mark and he doesn't wander either. Probably all due to the fact that he was fixed early, before he felt the need to be a "guy."

[courtnek]

My dog was not neutered as a puppy, so he lifts his leg still. I also have another dog and the dominance battle heats up, so that may be why. A dog
neutered as a puppy doesnt learn the marking behavior and doesnt have the dominance issue either. Your dog may never lift his leg, he may never feel the need to. Maybe around other dogs, but not anywhere else.

Squatting is what a dog does when he is not marking and not dominant. It's not really a problem, it's just the nature of the beast....

[Guest Anonymous]

I have three eskie boys, all neutered. The oldest who is 22 months was not neutered until 1 year: we adopted him at 15 months old. He lifts his leg about 1/2 of the time. The next one is 21 months old and was neutered at 6 months. He lifts his leg on occassion. The youngest is 16 months old. He was neutered at 5 months. This pup was hand fostered from birth and had no littermates and did not have any puppy playmates until 3 months of age when he came to live with us. He is pretty sure to this day that he is really a four legged, tail wagging human. (or maybe that we are simply physically challenged canines!) He lifts his leg only in the tall grass and our presumption is he doesn't like to have his belly tickled. They all seem to "mark" in the dog park but have been taught NOT to mark on walks in the neighborhood. We don't have a marking problem in the house but all were corrected at least once for trying it out.

The dog we adopted at 15 months old was reported by the original owners to have marked in her house (which is why she got rid of him). In that house, he was an only dog so I guess with 2 canine siblings, he finds my house more entertaining. All three of my dogs are exercised off lead daily unless the weather is absolutely rotten. Typically exercise periods are an hour to an hour and a half and in real nice weather, even longer. This too, I believe has eliminated a lot of really "bad" behaviors.

I have had several male dogs in the past and have never had a marking problem however all were altered as pups/young dogs. Now the male cats I had in the past were a different story all together. (Which is why I no longer have cats!) :lol:

[StarFox]

Thanks for everyones input, I appreciate it. I just wanted to make sure i didn't have some defective dog..thought maybe he was broken :lol: He was Neutered at 2 1/2 months, it kinda came in the package. I had adopted him from the pound. So that's probabaly why he dosn't mark things. He is such the Alpha dog though (he tries to mount the Mastiff and the Great Dane in our Obedience class) So it suprises me that he dosn't mark everything in his sight. I just hope he dosn't change and starts lifting his leg, especially in the house. Thanks again for the input.

[Rowie-the-Pooh]

Good for you for adopting a shelter dog! :D

[behle]

My neutered guys squat to pee - but after they are done, they go all around the yard lifting their leg marking everything in sight. :oops:

It always amazes me just how earnest they are in this endeavor. No twig, weed, stump, is too big or too small to be marked. They have a particular fondness for marking around the area where the deer feed! You wouldn't think they'd have enough special "stuff" left to go around, but they somehow manage to squeeze a little more out. They have never marked or peed in the house. They are such good boys! :angel:

[courtnek]

Mounting is a dominance behavior, somewhat different than marking. At class, he may feel the need to dominate, and you need to watch that.
At home, he's secure so he doesnt need to leg lift. But you really do need to watch the mounting behavior...Make sure he knows YOU are the alpha in all respects....

[daisykatep]

I'm a dog walker and all this peeing ritual makes me laugh :lol: I sometimes take 4 dogs out together, when the first dog has a pee the other 3 dogs wait and one by one they they take it in turn to pee over the first dogs pee then the first dog goes and pees over the lot! by the way the first dog is a male and the other 3 are females, when they do this ritual the females cock thier legs as well :P the rest of the walk they just pee as normal with the females squatting not cocking their legs.I think it's all to do with marking their territory. What do others think? :roll:

[behle]

Yes, it's a big contest! I like to think of it as like the game "Touched You Last" I played as a kid! :lol:

[courtnek]

definitely - the last one that gets to mark leaves the strongest scent.
My female will mark if she feels threatened or another dog bothers her, but other than that she leaves it up to Alex.

The really amazing thimg is that another dog could tell ALL FOUR of those scents apart.

:o

[luckychaos]

Lucky half the times lifts and half the time dosen't. He didn't start lifting at all until he was 2 or 3.

[pets4ever]

My dog doesn't lift his let yet at all. He was neutered at about 5 months when I got him, and is almost 7 months now. Actually, I am hoping he never does learn that behavior! I've heard though that if they get to watch others do it, they learn. They just don't feel the need to "mark" EVERYTHING if they have been neutered - so I guess even if he does learn later, it won't be a major problem. What I don't want to have to do is constantly watch him to make sure he doesn't pee inappropriately :roll: .