Do domestic dogs "know" they are marking their territory?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Or do the just feel compelled to piss on everything?

I assume wolves know exactly what they are doing but domestic dogs don’t have to worry about a strange dogs invading their space and eating their food like wolves do.

2

no I am pretty sure they get that.

I have three dogs and it ends up being a neverending chain of dogs pissing on the same thing. Cause they all want to be the top scent.

3

yep…7!

4

Dogs perceive their world via scent as much as we do via vision. A little pee communicates all kinds of information.

So yeah, they know what they are doing. And it is a tad more complicated than simply trying to dissuade potential interlopers.

5

For all intents and purposes, domestic dogs are wolves. Many (most?) taxonomists combine them into a single species at this point.

6

While I agree about the way dogs preceive the world I have to point out that some dogs just aren’t very perceptive. My dog will piss on something and then, 20 minutes later when we pass the same spot again, he will sniff and indignantly (or so it seems) cover his own scent. Then he will scratch dirt on the spot. Oh yeah, that’ll show those other dogs who owns this telephone pole!

So I think domestic dogs have lost some of the reasoning and are just instinctively over-pissing whenever they encounter the smell.

7

I don’t know that wolves “reason” Its instinctive communication.