Why do male dogs raise their one leg when urinating?

I think it is so they don't urinate on their foot or on their self. I don't know the history or when or how it started but I've got female dogs (2 Chihuahua's) that raise a leg while urinating.

I think that it is so that they can urinate on trees and objects so as to mark their territory. Female dogs do not do this, as far as I know.

Dogs are territorial animals to start with; and they do use their urine to mark their territories. As you might have observed they usually choose things which are elevated from the ground as their territorial boundaries. This makes sense since the scents that they would leave would not easily be washed off as fast as they were marked on the ground itself. This could also be the primary reason why dogs would raise their legs so that they would hit their mark. So that is my sane explanation.

gr8 question buddy...well will ask my pet n let u know.As he is sleeping now so i m he will talk tom.Frankly even i dont know.

I have two male dogs right now, they are three months, and neither raise their legs to pee. One stretches his legs out, and one lifts his leg, not up high, but like he is bending an imaginary knee cap. Weird, I know.

Actually, it isn't only males who do this. I've had some females who do. The reason is that they are marking their territory with the urine scent and want to spray it to cover a larger area. When I take my male Springer for a walk, he want to stop every few minutes to spray something---not that he has to go, he just wants to leave his scent. My female Rhodesian Ridgeback does the same thing. But at home, she just squats like most female dogs.

It also depends on the dog. I had a male shih-tzu and he didn't lift his leg all the time. He would just spread his legs apart but he didn't squat. Of course he wasn't that far off the ground. I think though it has to do more with marking their area. They are able to do a tree or mail post a lot easier with a lifted leg then with squatting. Squatting just gets on the ground which they don't want.

LOL.. Now that's quite an interesting discussion u started.. Yeah, its sure like that, but I have never seen a female dog urinating so can't exactly tell what's the difference.. But dogs only raise their legs when they r urinating against some support, they don't do it when they r urinating on plain grnd.. Atleast that much I know since I have a male dog myself...

well ma fren that was ma first question when i joined my lot..

i think they raise their legs so they can hit their target. for example they want to mark their territory on a wall, they can't urinate on the wall if they squat so they raise their legs to hit the wall.

I think male dogs raise their one leg when urinating because of the way they are built. Plus male dogs have a teritorial issue, and they love to mark their spots. So bushes and anything like that, they lift their leg and urinate. The funniest thing was my female dog that would lift her leg to urinate.