# Licking other dog's pee.....why?



## cmscott

My boy is 11months now and intact and has begun intensely sniffing areas where other dogs have peed and he will start licking it if I let him. When he does start licking the pee he begins the salivate intensely. Sometimes he will completely ignore me when he gets locked in.

Not really a concern but can someone tell me when is going on with this behavior?


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## 1sttimeforgsd

All I know to tell you is that it is a male thing, most male dogs will do this. Maybe someone who knows the reasoning behind it will chime in.


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## I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO

From what I understand, they lick it to smell it better. Males will salivate and sometimes click their teeth/jaw when they smell female urine.


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## Emoore

Yup, just lets them gather more information. Tends to be a male thing. My younger boy does it too.


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## chelle

My intact boy is very interested in my spayed females pee and will lick it. I find that odd. The neutered boy doesn't do this. Both boys pee on top of each other's pee. Who knew there was so much to pee.


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## carmspack

they are taking up hormones - checking for breeding time.

they are analysing the scent .


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## chelle

carmspack said:


> they are taking up hormones - checking for breeding time.
> 
> they are analysing the scent .


Why the interest in a *spayed* female?


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## doggiedad

pee licking is one more nasty thing they do before they lick us. :laugh:



I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO said:


> From what I understand, they lick it to smell it better. Males will salivate and sometimes click their teeth/jaw when they smell female urine.


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## RocketDog

Rocket does this too, and the drooling and glassy-eyes. I just figure he's a teenage pup obsessed with females, heh. :eyeroll:


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## carmspack

analysing scent . appreciating the finer nuances.
there is something in the anatomy of the vault of the mouth, an organ , which receives scent and adds to the information the nose would pick up.

sometimes when dogs track they will track open mouth .
Birch-Bark Hill: Dogs Working Scent/Open Mouth & Licking

our senses are no where as developed but we will swirl and smell brandy , then taste , hold in mouth for full experience of the complexity . 

Carmen
CARMSPACK.com


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## chelle

Please, oh please, someone tell me why an intact male would be interested in the pee of a spayed adult female? I've actually been looking for this answer for months now! Sorry to be a pest!


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## I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO

chelle said:


> Please, oh please, someone tell me why an intact male would be interested in the pee of a spayed adult female? I've actually been looking for this answer for months now! Sorry to be a pest!


I've always wondered that too, except Mikko is fixed too. At first, I thought he was only doing the foaming/chattering for intact female urine, but I'm not sure.


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## chelle

I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO said:


> I've always wondered that too, except Mikko is fixed too. At first, I thought he was only doing the foaming/chattering for intact female urine, but I'm not sure.


Well that is interesting. My neutered male doesn't do this. Only the intact one.


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## Twyla

I'll jump in the line of interest as well. Woolf has started this as well with Shadow, both altered.


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## GatorDog

My intact male does it to most female dogs urine. I tell him it's because he's a big old pervert.


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## doggiedad

you know carmpack, you always take the fun out of
our rookie, don't know squat answers. :smirk:/LOL.



carmspack said:


> analysing scent . appreciating the finer nuances.
> there is something in the anatomy of the vault of the mouth, an organ , which receives scent and adds to the information the nose would pick up.
> 
> sometimes when dogs track they will track open mouth .
> Birch-Bark Hill: Dogs Working Scent/Open Mouth & Licking
> 
> our senses are no where as developed but we will swirl and smell brandy , then taste , hold in mouth for full experience of the complexity .
> 
> Carmen
> CARMSPACK.com


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## selzer

The male will lick the pee of a female, checking for all of what Carmen said. Who is here? How old? Healthy? Near breeding time? And usually he will lift his leg on or near the spot to leave his message to any other male callers: "Big, strong Cassanova has already chosen this bitch, so clear out!"

A neutered dog may or may not be driven to examine urine -- the uterine horns and bladder share some plumbing so one can tell more than just a little about a bitch in question. It probably depends on how strong his drive to pro-create was prior to the neuter, and how strong his instincts are; but that is just a guess. 

A dog can gather more information from the urine than just how close a bitch is to estrus. So a dog that is interested, might be interested, but what happens after he lifts his head out of it. Is he dragging you along looking for the bitch in question, or is he just looking for the next object of interest -- I think that would depend on how ready the intact bitch was.


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## chelle

selzer said:


> The male will lick the pee of a female, checking for all of what Carmen said. *Who is here? How old? Healthy? Near breeding time?* And usually he will lift his leg on or near the spot to leave his message to any other male callers: "Big, strong Cassanova has already chosen this bitch, so clear out!"
> 
> A neutered dog may or may not be driven to examine urine -- the uterine horns and bladder share some plumbing so one can tell more than just a little about a bitch in question. It probably depends on how strong his drive to pro-create was prior to the neuter, and how strong his instincts are; but that is just a guess.


Haha I'm really going to be a pest now, but I can't help it, I have the taste of possible knowledge pushing me on... My intact male is so interested in the spayed female's urine.. yet, he lives with them. He is around them every day, every night. He surely has everything about them figured out, yet he still desires to lick their urine. He still desires to smell their girly parts. He's a real pest sometimes with this! In fact, I had to make a command for this problem -- "NO SNIFF!" 

I just own a major horndog, don't I? :shocked:


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## selzer

Well, boys will be boys.


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## Sunflowers

Q: Licking other dog's pee.....why?

A: Because they can!

I just couldn't resist.


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## Wetdog

--------"What is the Jacobson's Organ?


The Jacobson's organ is located on the roof of the mouth in reptiles and mammals. The Jacobson's organ is also called the vomeronasal organ. This organ works by sensing the chemicals such as pheromones.

Pheromones are the chemicals a living organism emits that organisms of the same species can detect. Scientific research has revealed that plants, vertebrates and insects communicate in this chemosensory way. For example, the female silkworm signals potential mates by releasing the pheromone bombykol, first discovered in 1959 by Adolf Butenandt. When bees swarm, it is in response to other bees that emit pheromones as an alarm.

Reptiles and mammals use their Jacobson's organ to sense pheromones. Elephants touch the tips of their trunks to their Jacobson's organ to enact their chemosensory perception of things. A lion uses its Jacobson's organ for sensing sex hormones, and will often open its mouth to sniff the pheromones sensed by its Jacobson's organ.

The Jacobson's organ also helps some animals perceive other chemical compounds besides just pheromones emitted between species. For instance, snakes find their prey by using their Jacobson's organ. A snake places its tongue on its Jacobson's, or vomeronasal, organ after having its tongue in the air. The snake touches its tongue on the two pits by the Jacobson's organ to allow it to properly sense the direction of their prey. The reason snakes have a forked tongue is so that the tongue can touch these pits. The deeper the fork in a snake's tongue, the more the snake uses its Jacobson's organ.

Snakes have a fully functioning Jacobson's organ, but humans and some species of bats do not. The vomeronasal organ develops in the fetus, but then does not continue to develop fully. Researchers have found that some people may have at least a partially functioning Jacobson's organ, but other researchers consider only a fully functioning Jacobson's organ as counting as having one, so these results are controversial."----------

What is the Jacobson's Organ?


Vomeronasal organ

Vomeronasal organ - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Congratulations. Your boy has become a hot blooded, obsessed, horny adolescent(with the accent on scent). He's discovered bitches.............or he's at least aware and checking things out.

This is akin to a wine taster "palate checking" a wine----watch the process, it is almost identical. In fact, in some cases, even the same class of chemicals is involved, aldehydes.


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## cmscott

Wetdog - 

Thanks. You could not have answered my question any more fully. Just an odd behavior that I was curious about. Thanks for taking the time to enlighten me.

Thanks to everyone else too.


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## Wetdog

You will also see this behavior in hunting dogs and tracking dogs locating and checking direction of a scent. You will either see them very gingerly touching the their tongue to an area they are searching----or holding their nose up to the wind and licking their nose/cheeks as if in anticipation of a treat. Or you will see them running with their mouth open flicking their tongue in and out like a snake.

This is just using the the Jacobson's organ as a sort of accessory scenting tool.

BTW---dogs can smell in stereo----similar to the way that you see in stereo. This will be quite obvious is you watch a hunting dog quartering a field(running at high speed in a zigzag pattern, to locate a scent). You will see them immediately change direction and head straight for the source of the scent without even breaking stride. This is because their brain is processing differences in scent strength between the two nostrils. The nostril with the slightly stronger scent will indicate the direction from which the scent is coming. They sense the world of scents in 3D, the same way that you "see" the world in 3D using light.


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## cmscott

Wetdog - 

Thanks for the further analysis, that certainly helps me have a better understanding of what is happening. I was with Otto at the park yesterday and his interest in sniffing patches of grass where dogs have peed seems to be increasing. 

He is getting very distracted when we are playing fetch and he will be almost in a full sprint and he will drop the ball and veer off and start sniffing very intensely. He is usually very driven to play fetch and chase the ball to the point where the dog park could have 25 dogs there and he won't pay attention to any of them and will just run until he can't move. 

Now it seems that he is losing that prey drive and is becoming hyper focused on sniffing patches of pee. I am not particularly concerned at this point but it is just getting annoying because it is becoming a distraction. 

Excuse my laymen's analysis, but I feel that part of this is just him being a teenager with raging hormones; which is fine. I just want to know if there is anything I should be doing to shape this behavior so that he will remain focused when we are out playing/training. 

Do I just let this one pass? Do I train him to not do it? Any thoughts?


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## Wetdog

------" Do I just let this one pass? Do I train him to not do it? Any thoughts?"------

Don't worry about it----you can't train it out, but the behavior will always be there, it will lessen in intensity as he gets older and more experienced.


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## pomaus

Did a search on this subject as one of my dogs is driving me nuts with this problem.

I have a 3 year old Male who is Neutered
and a 2 year male who is not neutered.

My 2 year old un-Neutered male has become obsessed with the other dogs Urine, He will go over and smell, lick and start clicking his jaw and drooling over the pee. He will follow him round the house obsessively licking the back of the ankle of my other dogs leg (I think he pee's on himself sometimes or walks in it)
He will sniff the floor carpets where ever my other dog has walked.
He will whine constantly.

The weird thing is, he does not do this to other dogs Urine when we are out on walks, he is only doing it to my other Neutered male.
At first i thought this must be related to a bitch being on heat somewhere, but if that was the case why is he not behaving this way towards all urine that he comes across? why is it only my other dogs pee he interested in.

It is also happening more regularly, like every other week, it will become an obsession with him for about 24-48 hours, drive us all mad, then it will settle down for a couple of weeks, then he starts again.

I am not sure if it is even sexual, he does not really try to mount my other dog, he does on the odd occasion, but its normally done during play / dominance, not obsessively like he is doing with the Urine.

Please god someone help, this is really driving us nuts and I do not think my dog is happy either due to the whining.

I spoke to the Vet, who was not really that helpful, he was unsure whether Neutering would even solve this problem as he was not sure if it was sexual / testosterone related.

Don't know what to do, we were going to use my dog as stud as he comes from crufts championship lines, but if chopping his knackers off will cure this problem then I am more than happy to do that as this obsessive behaviour is really intolerable, I am not joking when I say it goes on all day / evening when it starts for about 24/48 hrs and makes the entire household frustrated and miserable lol including my neutered male who is the object this obsession 

Please god someone help


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## wolfy dog

...because he is a dog. That's completely normal and the reason I don't want them to lick me. ON leash, I have never allowed them to do this; we are in business then.


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## Nurse Bishop

pomaus said:


> Did a search on this subject as one of my dogs is driving me nuts with this problem.
> 
> I have a 3 year old Male who is Neutered
> and a 2 year male who is not neutered.
> 
> My 2 year old un-Neutered male has become obsessed with the other dogs Urine, He will go over and smell, lick and start clicking his jaw and drooling over the pee. He will follow him round the house obsessively licking the back of the ankle of my other dogs leg (I think he pee's on himself sometimes or walks in it)
> He will sniff the floor carpets where ever my other dog has walked.
> He will whine constantly.
> 
> The weird thing is, he does not do this to other dogs Urine when we are out on walks, he is only doing it to my other Neutered male.
> At first i thought this must be related to a bitch being on heat somewhere, but if that was the case why is he not behaving this way towards all urine that he comes across? why is it only my other dogs pee he interested in.
> 
> It is also happening more regularly, like every other week, it will become an obsession with him for about 24-48 hours, drive us all mad, then it will settle down for a couple of weeks, then he starts again.
> 
> I am not sure if it is even sexual, he does not really try to mount my other dog, he does on the odd occasion, but its normally done during play / dominance, not obsessively like he is doing with the Urine.
> 
> Please god someone help, this is really driving us nuts and I do not think my dog is happy either due to the whining.
> 
> I spoke to the Vet, who was not really that helpful, he was unsure whether Neutering would even solve this problem as he was not sure if it was sexual / testosterone related.
> 
> Don't know what to do, we were going to use my dog as stud as he comes from crufts championship lines, but if chopping his knackers off will cure this problem then I am more than happy to do that as this obsessive behaviour is really intolerable, I am not joking when I say it goes on all day / evening when it starts for about 24/48 hrs and makes the entire household frustrated and miserable lol including my neutered male who is the object this obsession
> 
> Please god someone help


 This is one reason why I prefer lady dogs.


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## MineAreWorkingline

pomaus said:


> Did a search on this subject as one of my dogs is driving me nuts with this problem.
> 
> I have a 3 year old Male who is Neutered
> and a 2 year male who is not neutered.
> 
> My 2 year old un-Neutered male has become obsessed with the other dogs Urine, He will go over and smell, lick and start clicking his jaw and drooling over the pee. He will follow him round the house obsessively licking the back of the ankle of my other dogs leg (I think he pee's on himself sometimes or walks in it)
> He will sniff the floor carpets where ever my other dog has walked.
> He will whine constantly.
> 
> The weird thing is, he does not do this to other dogs Urine when we are out on walks, he is only doing it to my other Neutered male.
> At first i thought this must be related to a bitch being on heat somewhere, but if that was the case why is he not behaving this way towards all urine that he comes across? why is it only my other dogs pee he interested in.
> 
> It is also happening more regularly, like every other week, it will become an obsession with him for about 24-48 hours, drive us all mad, then it will settle down for a couple of weeks, then he starts again.
> 
> I am not sure if it is even sexual, he does not really try to mount my other dog, he does on the odd occasion, but its normally done during play / dominance, not obsessively like he is doing with the Urine.
> 
> Please god someone help, this is really driving us nuts and I do not think my dog is happy either due to the whining.
> 
> I spoke to the Vet, who was not really that helpful, he was unsure whether Neutering would even solve this problem as he was not sure if it was sexual / testosterone related.
> 
> Don't know what to do, we were going to use my dog as stud as he comes from crufts championship lines, but if chopping his knackers off will cure this problem then I am more than happy to do that as this obsessive behaviour is really intolerable, I am not joking when I say it goes on all day / evening when it starts for about 24/48 hrs and makes the entire household frustrated and miserable lol including my neutered male who is the object this obsession
> 
> Please god someone help


Have you had your neutered male checked for recurring urinary tract infections?


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