Everyone is by now familiar with the fact that, for male dogs, urination is much more than the mere elimination of waste substances from the body. Every time they are taken for a walk, the main focus of interest is in reading the chemical signals deposited on scent-posts of various kinds in their home range
by the leg-cocking urination of other male dogs.
Every tree-stump and lamppost is sniffed with quivering concentration. Then, after its odour messages have been carefully read, the dog leaves its own scent-mark, obliterating the older deposit with its own powerful odour.
Bullterrier
When they are puppies, both males and females squat to urinate, but at puberty, around the age of eight or nine months, male dogs begin to lift one back leg when squirting their jet of urine. The raised leg is stretched out stiffly, with the body of the dog angled so that the stream of liquid is aimed sideways, instead of downwards on to the surface of the ground below.
So powerful is the urge to perform this leg-cocking that, on a long scent-filled walk, a dog may run out of urine and find itself unable to produce a jet of liquid. On such occasions, male dogs can be observed desperately trying to squeeze out just a few more drops in order to leave their ‘calling card’.
Even when the bladder is completely empty they will continue to perform the leg-raising act, so independent has it become from the need to remove liquid waste.
It is also independent, curiously enough, of male virility. Male dogs that have been castrated before reaching puberty will start to cock their leg set the same age as those that are fully sexually active.
So, although it is typically an adult masculine activity, it does not seem to be related to the levels of testosterone present, as might be expected. But although it may not be caused by the presence of sex hormones, it will certainly leave messages about the sexual condition of the dogs concerned, because
sex hormones are excreted in the urine.
Why Do Dogs Cock Their Legs?
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