Why Do Dogs Pee On Fire Hydrants? Hint, It Just Seems Like They Do

Why do dogs pee on fire hydrants? Walking your dog is a good opportunity to become aware of his behaviour. You’re just walking by him and letting him do his thing, but you couldn’t help but notice that he prefers certain places for peeing, especially water hydrants.

Walking your dog you’ve probably become aware of his behaviour. You’ve probably been a little angry at times when the closest tree or water hydrant was not enough for him to pee. Why do dogs do that? Why are they running away back and forth and peeing a little bit on every thing they find in their way? Well, the answer is here. Or at least, part of the answer.

Dogs depend a lot on their sense of smell and they highly function on marking their territory and that’s in their genes, even though they don’t need to mark their territory anymore now as they are taken care of by their loving owners, they still have the urge to leave their scent on objects so that other animals would know, they have been here.

Why do dogs pee on fire hydrants and not something else?

via: torontostandard.com

So, dogs don’t just pee on fire hydrants. In fact, they will pretty much pee on anything that is standing and able to take their pee. If you really think about it, dogs pee on bushes, trees, walls and even cars many times. Whenever you walk your dog, he will always be sniffing around and pee on a hydrant or tree where he feels that a female dog in heat has been or they simply do it to erase the former scent of another dog and replace it with their own.

So dogs don’t pee only on fire hydrants?

NO! We just said that. Good, so dogs pee on a lot of stuff because they mark their territory and they erase the smell of another dog, just to prove that they’re stronger, but why do they prefer fire hydrants that much? Well, it seems it’s got to do with the paint in them.

Veterinarians think that there is something “sweet” in their paint that replicate canine urine in a way. This wasn’t something planned, no official ever thought about using paint that smell sweet to the dogs, it just happened. And yet this is not something that is scientifically proven, it’s just how many people think, but clearly it’s no fact.

So, next time you walk your dog and wonder why dogs like to pee on fire hydrants, don’t blame him for rushing from one fire hydrant to another to pee. They’re not only peeing, their doing much more than that! Let them feel good about themselves.