Pee Mail: It’s the Doggy Facebook!

Scarleth White

My dog, Ruby, pees a lot. That is, when we go on walks, she's constantly stopping to whiz.

Ruby doesn’t pee because she has to GO. Instead, she pees a little here, and then she pees a little there . . . it’s like Ruby saves it up so that she can pee a little on the entire walk!

Well, it turns out that Ruby isn’t just peeing. She’s leaving pee-mail!

According to a new article in the magazine Animal Behaviour, when Ruby smells another dog's pee, it makes her competitive. In her doggy mind, she says, “I’m going to pee ON TOP OF your pee. That’ll make me top dog!”

The more competitive a dog is, the more it wants to pee on top of every other dog’s pee. That means that boy dogs whiz on pee more than girl dogs.

Here’s the best part: Although dogs may not meet in person (or “in dog”), they do meet each other’s pee. So later, when the dogs DO actually meet face-to-face, they already sort of know each other!

"Hey, didn’t you pee over on 43rd Avenue?"

"Yes, I did. I then I came back the next day and discovered that YOU had peed on MY pee!"

"That’s right!" *tail wag*

"Oh, it’s ON, Ruby. I’m peeing on your pee every time now!"

"Okay!" *tail wag*

"Alright. Let’s sniff each others butts and then get going."

Road sign photo by Peter Dutton