Every mammal pees, but dogs urinate as a way to say something important. Some dogs pee out of excitement or fear, but most of the time, it’s all about territory and telling other dogs in the area that this is their space, like setting up a no trespassing sign.
Especially in densely populated urban areas like cities, numerous dogs compete to stake their claim on the same street. Why do dogs urinate on the road?
Dogs urinate on the road as a way to mark their territory and tell other animals that they have claimed the space. A dog’s nose is much more powerful than ours, so they use scent as a part of their communications array. Urinating on the road is a normal behavior that is commonly done by non-neutered male dogs.
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6 Reasons Why Dogs Urinate On The Road
Dogs urinate on the road for more than one reason. While marking territory is the one we talk about most often, more is going on with this animal instinct. Marking is a complex communication method.
Below are six reasons why dogs pee on the road:
1 – Marking Their Territory
Dogs have an area they consider their home. Typically this extends beyond the home to include everywhere they go for walks.
When your dog pees in the street, they are letting other animals in the area know that they live here and consider this space important enough that they may be willing to fight for their territory.
According to VCA Hospitals, “The volume of urine used for marking is usually small. The problem is much more common in intact males, but many neutered males and spayed females also mark their territory. If your dog marks where other dogs have urinated, when exposed to new odors, or when entering a strange environment, it may be a form of territorial marking.”
2 – Marking A Trail
When you go for a walk in a new area, you might take your GPS or use your phone to keep track of where you wander, or you might memorize landmarks.
People do this because we are highly visual creatures. However, your dog lives in a world of smells that you can’t even conceive of and uses the three hundred million scent receptors in its snout to picture the world around them.
By urinating in the road at different intervals, your dog is leaving their unique scent. Dogs are excellent trackers and can follow a smell for miles, so they are leaving trail markers for themselves.
Think of this like Hansel and Grettle leaving breadcrumbs, except birds won’t eat this path.
3 – Lack of Options
Dogs usually prefer to mark vertical surfaces like trees, walls, and even car tires. Unfortunately, there isn’t always an easy place to do this, especially if your human pulls you away from buildings and other people’s vehicles.
As a result, dogs pee in the road because they lack other options.
Given a choice, most canines will pick a patch of dirt or grass. These natural options can be scarce in the city, and they know you still expect them to go to the bathroom while you’re out on your walk.
So the dog picks the only available choice, mainly to make you happy and because they need to pee.
4 – Doggy Dating App
Male dogs often lick at the urine they find, whether it’s in the road or elsewhere. They may even get excited and chatter their teeth or quiver their mouth.
This is a flehmen’s reaction from activating their vomeronasal scent organ, and it’s even more likely if the pee came from a female dog in heat.
Like all mammals, dogs have to mate to make more dogs. When an unaltered male smells the pee from a female in estrus, he knows she’s receptive to breeding.
Peeing in the street can be the doggy equivalent of a dating app or at least a request for a hookup.
5 – Recruitment
Dogs are social animals. They want to compete for territory, but they also want to make friends with other dogs to form a group.
Although your pet likely sees you and your family or roommates as their group, it doesn’t hurt to put themselves out there if they want to grow the group. You’ll notice I didn’t say ‘pack.’
I recently learned that the dog pack and wolf pack myths that have persisted for years aren’t entirely accurate and stem from some early misunderstandings about dog social hierarchy.
As the Animal Health Foundation explains, “Wild wolf packs are families. The alpha pair are indeed in charge, but that is because they are the parents… Dogs do not live in a pack structure. Left to their own devices away from (humans) and with adequate resources, they form loose social groups but not structured packs. So for dogs, there is no such thing as an alpha dog – or a pack leader.”
A dog who asserts dominance through anger, barking, biting, and other angry behaviors has a behavior problem.
However, dogs do like to live together, and when they pee on the road, they are letting other dogs know who lives in the area if they ever need to form a new group.
6 – Gotta Go
Sometimes your dog stops to pee in the road for the most straightforward reason of all. Your dog needs to pee. When an animal’s bladder gets full, they need to empty it, just like you do.
Sure, marking is a complex social interaction between canines, but ‘when ya gotta go, ya gotta go.’
Helpful Tips To Know About Why Dogs Urinate On The Road
Urinating on the road is perfectly normal behavior for your dog. Although asphalt is probably not your pet’s top choice, it will do for their purposes when there’s not a patch of grass or a tree somewhere nearby, especially when they need to use the restroom urgently.
Here are some more helpful tips to know about why dogs urinate on the road.
- All dogs share a common ancestor with wolves. No matter how they look centuries and many generations later, dogs still have some wild instincts. Urinating on the road and on other surfaces to mark territory and running in groups are two of the most obvious ways dogs show off their lineage.
- Small dogs have small bladders and will urinate more often than big dogs as a result. Likewise, puppies need to go out more often to pee, and they are a lot less discerning in where they go.
- Spaying or neutering will typically cut down on how often your dog marks, especially indoors. It may eliminate the behavior in some dogs, so don’t be surprised if your dog stops taking those quick breaks and picks one spot to do all their peeing.
Final Thoughts
Dogs urinate on the road for several reasons, but mostly it has to do with marking territory. Scent marking is more complex than claiming a spot, and canines use it to find other dogs and keep track of where they have been.
Given a choice, your pet will probably pick a tree, bare earth, or grass first, but when the road is the only or best option, they pee there.
