When my dog pees on posts, hydrants and trees, what's he really doing?

Factual Questions
1

Without fail, on every evening walk, the dog pees on immovable objects every 50 yards or so.

I’ve always heard it referred to as the dog “marking its territory,” a vestige from the old wolf days.

But marking it for what? Is he saying to other dogs, “This is my turf; stay out?”

I can’t imagine a starving wolf somewhere out in the wild avoiding looking for food in an area just cuz some other wolf peed on some trees there.

Or is he doing the dog equivalent of leaving a business card, hoping some other dog will “look him up sometime?”

2

Of course that’s what he’s doing! The business card, I mean. Dogs smell the hydrants and trees where other dogs have “done their business”, and they can tell the sex, age and other stats of the dog before them. Then, as an act of cordiality, they leave their own “message” to let the other dogs know the same. It’s kind of like when they smell each other’s butts. The real challenge, or so I’ve heard, is when a rather large dog pees before my dog, and for some unknown reason, he feels he must pee HIGHER than the last dog.

3

A young pup starts off down an alley with an older dog, hoping to learn the ways of being a dog.

They first pass a telephone pole and the older dog sniffs around, then lifts his leg on it.
They next encounter a bone. The older dog sniffs around that, then gnaws on it a while.
They pass two more phone poles and two trash cans. Each time the older dog sniffs around them, then lifts his leg.
Next they encounter a female. After sniffing around her for a bit, the older dog mounts her.
They then finish their stroll down the alley, with the older dog sniffing out three more poles, two more trash cans, and two fire hydrants, sniffing them over and lifting his leg on each one.

At the end of the walk, the pup says. “I understand about the bone, and I think I understand about the female. But why in the world were you lifting your leg on all the other things?”
The older dog replied, “If you can’t eat it or screw it, piss on it.”

4

“The real challenge, or so I’ve heard, is when a rather large dog pees before my dog, and for some unknown reason, he feels he must pee HIGHER than the last dog.”

eveelynn, my lovely Sheltie has been neutered and seeing him try to lift that back leg just a little bit higher and higher - well, he’s come close to tipping over more than once! Seems like a calling card.

5

Same thing as middle-management or gov’t workers peeing around their cubicles…

6

I do NOT pee around my cubicle, thank you very much.

I’ve heard that the best way to keep roaming dogs off your property is to take note of where they mark, and pee HIGHER on it. Don’t let the neighbors catch you, tho.