# Doggie style **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313 "2003-12-01T19:01:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/1 "2003-12-01T19:01:09Z")
Two questions whose answers are probably known to anyone but myself but, here goes… Why do dogs hump people’s legs? Why do male dogs feel they have to raise their leg (against a standing object) to pee? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/2 "2003-12-01T19:58:38Z")
1. Because it feels good? Because the daddy doggie has this special thing that he can use to make baby doggies with a mommy doggie, and it feels _soooooo_ good to make baby doggies with a mommy doggie, and if there doesn’t happen to be a mommy doggie around, it feels _sooooooo_ good just to rub his special thing against people’s legs, which are the right height, and, dare I say, temperature? (Plus they also move and wiggle in a gratifyingly lifelike manner…) 2. Because dogs use urine to mark territory, and they prefer to mark things that are upright, like fire hydrants and trees and fenceposts, the better to make a “Kilroy was here” Statement, so if you’re aiming your pee at a tree _over there_, and you’re down on all fours, you gotta raise your leg to get it out of the way or else you’ll have pee all down the inside of your leg. Duh. Hope this helps. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/3 "2003-12-01T20:09:19Z")
1. So Fido’s masturbating against my leg? Ick. Thanks, just what I needed to know. 2. Do female dogs mark territory? (I have no idea, really.) If so, they don’t raise their hind legs. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/4 "2003-12-01T20:26:25Z")
IIRC, some humping is dominance related, not necessarily sexual. ---
**Author:** ![WoMackdaddie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@WoMackdaddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WoMackdaddie)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/5 "2003-12-01T20:47:37Z")
dogs are simple creatures, they follow instinct primarily. They hump because it feels good. And they pee on things to mark their territory. Female dogs have no reason to mark territory, as an avid (but maybe completely wrong) national geographic watcher, female animals leave the markers up to the males. But hey, why not? i love peeing on things as much as the next man. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/6 "2003-12-01T20:57:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SimonX \* > \*\*IIRC, some humping is dominance related, not necessarily sexual. \*\* That is correct. It can also occur during periods of intense and hyperactive play when the dog becomes “overstimulated.” He gets too worked up to control himself (because you’re encouraging him too, wittingly or unwittingly) and may do all sorts of strange or inappropriate things. Mounting has a place in doggy sociology. . .dogs often mount dogs to assert that they are higher in the pack order than the mountee. People need to discourage this more than they do. Female dogs are not as concerned with marking everything as male dogs are. Female dogs squat, as do young puppies and dogs of either sex. Some males, usually if neutered at a young enough age, never catch on to the leg-lifting routine either. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/7 "2003-12-01T21:04:02Z")
I have always read that it is only male dogs who mark, but I have noticed that from the beginning, my female dog also exhibited behaviour that seemed exactly like marking. On a long walk, she would stop at a dozen or so places, sniff for the scent of other dogs and then pee a little, usually by lifting her leg. She would pee in both ways, by lifting her leg and by squatting, the latter, it seemed, only when there weren’t any posts or other popular marking spots around, or in our own yard. In other words, it seemed like she was lifting her leg to mark, but squatting just when she had to go. ---
**Author:** ![Indefatigable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9d8465/32.png) [@Indefatigable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indefatigable)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/8 "2003-12-01T22:41:46Z")
There’s a neat book called _The Social Lives of Dogs_ by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas that discusses phenomena such as female dogs who lift a leg to pee. It’s actually a sort of behavioural chronicle of the author’s own dogs, and how they interact with each other (and with humans and other animals). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/9 "2003-12-01T23:01:16Z")
Summary on what she said about this subject? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/10 "2003-12-01T23:57:56Z")
I just think it’s humerous that there are two threads with “doggie style” in the title on the first page of GQ. ---
**Author:** ![WaryEri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ea666f/32.png) [@WaryEri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WaryEri)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/11 "2003-12-02T00:03:57Z")
Lifting the leg also has to do with marking your territory as high as possible. As in " Look how high I peed. I must be a Big Tough Dog. Don’t mess with me or my stuff". We had an un-neutered medium sized male who’d stretch himself so far that he’d fall over on occasion, trying to get that mark as high up as he could. Our netured-at-6-months Dal lifts his leg but seems pretty indifferent to where he hits. ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/12 "2003-12-02T00:32:31Z")
See? Told ya I was the only one…😃 Thanks gang: you’ve made me a little less…ignorant (even though I _did_ know about the marking of territory) ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggie-style/216313/13 "2003-12-02T00:50:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by acsenray \* > \*\*I have always read that it is only male dogs who mark, but I have noticed that from the beginning, my female dog also exhibited behaviour that seemed exactly like marking. On a long walk, she would stop at a dozen or so places, sniff for the scent of other dogs and then pee a little, usually by lifting her leg. She would pee in both ways, by lifting her leg and by squatting, the latter, it seemed, only when there weren’t any posts or other popular marking spots around, or in our own yard. In other words, it seemed like she was lifting her leg to mark, but squatting just when she had to go. \*\* I am in the woods with my female Siberian, every day. On a daily basis, she will find the droppings of animals (deer, racoon, fox, coyote, etc.) and pee right on them. Just yesterday, we came upon horse droppings, and she peed on that.