Not raising leg to pee yet

[arianin]

My Sam is almost 8 months old and is being neutered next Friday, his testis descended about 3 wks ago, my worry is that he is not even attempting to cock his leg to pee and still squats. Does anyone know if he will raise his leg or if when he is fixed will this stop him doing it at all.

Thanks

 

P s...he had his pre-op on Monday just gone but completely forgot to ask the vet about this lol

[ejano]

My Sam is almost 8 months old and is being neutered next Friday, his testis descended about 3 wks ago, my worry is that he is not even attempting to cock his leg to pee and still squats. Does anyone know if he will raise his leg or if when he is fixed will this stop him doing it at all.

Thanks

 

P s...he had his pre-op on Monday just gone but completely forgot to ask the vet about this lol

 

I don't understand all of the hormones/behavioral patterns connected to the switch over but here is what happened at our house: Brodie is over a year old and still has yet to adopt a male stance ...I've been told that some dogs never do and that's okay with me, for the sake of my shrubs. He and Robin were both neutered at a year old.

 

Robin started marking/ lifting his leg at about eight months old, having witnessed an older male dog marking a post at obedience class. You could just see the light bulb going off above his head. He came home and immediately started claiming all of the fence posts. Mine. Mine. Mine....it went on for hours. And he still sticks to fence posts, thank goodness. But there's not a one left for Bro and he apparently never quite dared to remark the territory. Though he'll go up to the line and pee close to a post, but never on it. (Apparently height has something to do with status in the doggy world.)

 

They also have this game of everyone peeing where everyone else has peed, which Brodie does participate in. That started when they were puppies. Ladybug became their adoptive mother when we brought them home and she would "cover" their scent. Then, as they grew older, the pups somehow thought they had to pee where she did. We have quite a large area fenced in so it did help in potty training because she would take them to the far corners to "do their business."

 

Liz

[Brenna14]

Both my boys are neutered and at 2 years old, neither of them lift their leg. Is it something to be worried about or is it normal?

[Jacks_Mom]

Jack is 15 months old and still squats. He only hikes his leg to mark but squats to pee.

[Root Beer]

I've seen Speedy lift his leg to pee exactly three times in his life. He was neutered at 6 months and I have absolutely no idea if that had anything to do with it.

 

It surprises people sometimes, but beyond that it has never been a problem.

[Maralynn]

Some males just don't lift their leg. My 5 y/o male (neutered at 2 y/o) has always squatted. But even after his neuter your dog might start lifting his leg. It all just depends on the dog.

[HoosierMike]

Our young male, Dave, has never lifted his leg to go. He was a shelter pup

that we got at age 3 1/2 months and he was already neutered. He is 17

months old now and the only problem is that sometimes when he goes pee,

if he's in a hurry to do something else, he sometimes hits his front leg. We

just wash him off, if we see it happen, before he comes back in the house.

Mike

[BCjetta]

Our male aussie was neutered at 5.5 months old. He first started lifting his leg around 1.5yrs and it first started as lifting 1 leg a tiny bit off the ground when he peed. Now he's 5 and he lifts it most of the time unless he is in the backyard where there's no point in marking.

[juliepoudrier]

Most people would be thrilled to have a dog who *doesn't* lift his leg to pee. No peeing on the bushes or ornamental flowers, no marking stuff in the house, no marking car tires, no marking stuff period. (And especially, no marking my tent at sheepdog trials!). Seriously, it's not a big deal. Most do start lifting their leg sooner or later, and neutering status won't have an effect on that. It seems to me that the boys with a bit "too much" testosterone (i.e., those that act like intact males from an early age, with all the downsides to that) start marking earlier than others, but in the end, most males (and some females, though they usually also squat at least partially) will lift their leg to pee at least some of the time.

 

J.

[kristinavb]

My Mickey didn't start lifting until a year and a half. He was neutered at 8 mons. He picked it up from being around other males who marked. My female, Cheyenne, will lift her leg while she squats. Seamus marks everything outside.

[bcnewe2]

peein on their own leg beats peeing on everything else!

I could only dream of a male that doesn't lift his leg!

Enjoy it while you can!

[Ms.DaisyDuke]

My guy has only just started sorta lifting his leg. He was neutered at 6 months, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. He will lift his leg to pee on railway ties that our fence is built on for some reason. The majority of the time he sorta half heatedly lifts his leg. I don't believe it's anything to be worried about at all. Seems pretty normal to me.

 

ETA: He's 1.5 years old

[SecretBC]

Luke was neutered at 4 1/2 months (Humane Society...) and always took the stretched out horse stance to pee. Kaiser joined the family when Luke was four years old -- and I swear Kaiser was a leg-lifter from day one. Shortly after, I noticed Luke started to lift his leg, too.

 

Luke most frequently still stretches out to pee in a wide open space, but he will occasionally mark -- mostly on walks when he is off leash. Kaiser is a dedicated leg lifter and struggles to actually go if there is nothing to aim at (he is still intact).

[skiba]

Oliver picked it up from another dog and is now killing my raspberry bush

[herdcentral]

Lucky you, my 9month old BC boy as yet uneutered boy marks everything in sight at the momet. He has peed on dog crates, chairs and everything else including my leg, leaving me with a horrible wet smelly pants at a trial. Ugh, now I always carry a spare pair of pants just in case he gets a sneaky one in.

 

My other boy squats at times but has a horrible habit of rushing over and lifting his leg on my girl dogs when they squat but doesnt mark everything in sight like my young BC.

 

Now I know why I always had girl dogs before these two demon leg cockers. My BC boy definitely has way too much testosterone, started marking at about 6 months! cant wait for when the time comes to remove his testicles.

[Brenna14]

From the sounds of it I'm very lucky they don't lift their legs!! I'll stop showing them how to do it - the neighbors probably think I'm ridiculous when I stand out there on one leg showing them how to lift it haha

[bcnewe2]

I'll stop showing them how to do it

 

Now that's just to funny!

[MrSnappy]

Dexter started lifting his leg when he was about 11 weeks old.

 

Tweed didn't lift his leg until he was 5 YEARS old. Seriously. He's a late bloomer.

 

RDM

[PSmitty]

Jack was probably 4 before he ever lifted a leg and Alex 3. They usually still squat to pee, and only lift to mark things. Alex only started this when we brought Will home.

[Journey]

And my little bitch, now 6 mo old, is one of those that squats, however, her rear legs are off the ground. Yep, she has her butt up in the air and has no trouble marking bushes.....of course she also taught her brother how to lift his leg when he was only 3 mo old.

[PSmitty]

I know a min pin who pees like your girl, Karen.

 

The funniest thing so far with Alex lifting his leg, is the one time at a flyball tournament, where he was lifting a leg to mark a little tree/bush type thing, decided he had to poop instead, kinda twisted around and pooped right on the lowest tree branch. Weirdo.

[DebC]

Bo will be 5 in August, and he only kinda sorta lifts his leg, occasionally, to pee. Most of the time he still squats.

Dozer is pretty much the same, although I think he makes more of an attempt to lift leg than Bo does - Dozer is just about 1 year old, we think -

Hubby thinks they aren't very macho, but I don't care!

[sblock]

I've really enjoyed this thread. Zorro, who we adopted when he was five, is mostly a squatter (horse stance describes it perfectly). I had never seen a grown male do that before, unless he was arthritic. So it's interesting to hear that there are other squatters out there. His foster thought it had something to do with being neutered at a very young age (we don't know his history) but it sounds like it's just the way some dogs are.

[Christina]

As far as I know, leg lifting has absolutely nothing to do with being neutered. My male BC was neutered at three years of age, and I think I've seen him actually lift his leg twice.

 

The general concensus is that leg lifting is a learned behavior. Of course, that brings up the "chicken or the egg" argument of "Who was the first dog to decide leg lifting was a great idea?" but you get the general picture. I've actually seen this theory in action- my seven-year-old BC was taught to lift her leg when she was five. I had a foster dog who was a serial leg lifter, and my girl decided she wanted to be just like him!

[herdcentral]

The general concensus is that leg lifting is a learned behavior.

 

Not sure how my demon leg cocker learnt - he lives on a farm with girl dogs and a same age male who all squat and so has no male role models to copy and I certainly didnt show him! As soon as those testicles descended he was up and cocking. A bit shaky at first I grant you, but at 9 months he is now an expert.