I have an un-neutered (please do not hijack the thread about this) beagle who is about 1.5 years old. He still squats to urinate. Is this a sign that something could be wrong with him? The vet says no, but we’re looking for a new vet, because this one isn’t so great. He’s never been around a dog who does lift it’s leg, so he’s never seen it done, if that matters.
My friend has an 8 year old Jack Russell terrier that does the same thing. Maybe it’s easier for shorter legged dogs to do this? There’s nothing abnormal about him other than he squats to pee (the dog, not my friend).
In my experience, every male dog that would squat to pee grew up without a male dog that stood up. Either it was around females, or the males it was around squatted themselves.
I think it might actually be a learned thing.
Or maybe your dog wants to be a bitch? 
I have an 8 year old female husky that will lift her leg from time to time. Go figure.
The only bad thing about this tendency in a male dog is that it’s not good for your lawn.
Trees seem to be tougher than grass in this regard.
My male lab squats. Then again, he’s not allowed to lift his leg, but he’s never tried, so he doesn’t know he’s not allowed to. So yeah, he squats.
In my experience it’s often related to the dominance status; male dogs that are more submissive tend to not lift the leg while alpha females often do. It’s not an absolute correlation but it’s been a handy clue in evaluating dog personalities. Whatever the reason, it’s pretty common so in this case I’d take your vet at his word.
Thanks for the reassurance everyone.
We had two male dogs who squatted, but they were both on the fat side (came to us that way as rescues and we never did have any luck getting their weight down). Beagle and cocker spaniel, both neutered.
My (spayed) female shepherd/lab mix is a marker.
When he really had to go (for the sake of going, not leaving his “messages” around the neighborhood) my male Black Lab would kind of squat, but with one of his hind legs just barely off the ground.
Ya know, when some guys are out in public, they’d rather pee in one of the stalls than in a urinal. Different strokes . . .
Our lab/border collie, who is 9 years old now, still squats most of the time. We got him as a puppy, and he was “second dog” to our cocker mix.
We always figured it was a dominance issue.
My six-year-old spayed whippet/mutt squats in the yard, but when going out of our territory regularly lifts her leg to mark. I’d previously thought that only male dogs did such.
My male Boxer hikes his leg when he’s marking, but squats when he’s draining the lizard. He didn’t have a male role model, BTW.
I have a barrel-chested Rottie who does the same.
I had a dog who squatted for four years. Then one day we had a visiting male dog in our yard who hiked one up next to the tree.
After that my dog always hiked. And if he was in the back yard he ALWAYS peed in exactly the same place on that tree as the other dog. I think that he was driven by territorial pride.
My neutered beagle mix doesn’t even bother to squat. He just stands there and lets it fly which unfortunately has the occasional result of him whizzing all over the back of his front legs. He had no canine role model of any sort as I found him when he was only 5 weeks old.
I have a neutered male beagle (very non-dominant and quite anxious, personality-wise) who sometimes just kind of lowers himself to pee. He doesn’t really squat - just gets his weiner low enough to miss his front legs, thank goodness. He hasn’t had any male canine role models, just his sister who routinely tries to bite the crap out of him.
I had a neutered female beagle a while back who not only lifted her leg, but would actually lift both legs to pee on trees. It looked like she was climbing the tree backwards.
Beagles is weird.
He’s quite slim and fairly middle of the road, to dominant so that’s not it. I guess it’s just the lack of a role model.
Good to know that although he’s weird, he’s got company.
My male golden retriever was a lifelong squatter. I’m also convinced that he was gay (not just for that), make of it what you will.