dogs reading their pee mail

Yes to all of the above. Dogs invented the phrase, "peeing contest."
 

I have not idea, but the notion of "pee-mail" makes me laugh . . . I know that winston sends pee-mail when we go on walks.

I have no knowledge on the subject, just a story.  My dad and I were walking Marty, and of course Marty streaks towards a fire hydrant.  He is sniffing it frantically for a few minutes, and my dad says, "Jesus, Sarah, what is he doing?"  I said, "Dad, that's the neighborhood message board.  It's Doggie Headline News.  He's just finding out what's going on, who has got the best aim, and if there are new hot chicks in the neighborhood."  Heh, Doggie Headline News []

I've always wondered about this too, because both of my boys spend a lot of time sniffing all of the signposts and bushes on our walks. They both have their favorite spots to mark too. Odin will pull frantically when he gets to certain spots. "Mom, they won't know I've been here today, if I can't pee in this spot!"

Ha ha ha - "pee mail". That's great.
 
Odie is the same way. He'll stop to pee on EVERYTHING when we're on a walk. Even if he lifts up his leg and it's one tiny drop, he still has to mark his territory.
 
Male dogs....sheesh! [sm=biggrin.gif]

That is a great title for a dogism book.  Very cute.  I love how the dogs are always "reading" the air from the vent in the car or of course the "pee-mail".  hee hee.

i can't take credit for the joke...i saw it in a cartoon....the dog was telling the owner to stop pulling; he's reading his pee mail.

I read someplace (can't remember where) that a sniffing dog can tell whether the dog who peed before him was male or female, neutered or intact, was in a good mood or a bad one, was agressive, was by himself or with a person, etc.  Maybe that's why sometimes they sniff out a spot, determine that it's not the *right* spot and go looking for a better one. []

Joyce

I can actually tell a lot about my own dogs from how they read their pee-mail. Conrad, when really engrossed in it, just can not be moved. He digs in. He has got to finish it to the very last paragraph and I can literally lean with my entire weight against his leash and he just stands there sniffing. Marlowe can be called off the pee-mail by voice command, but get him on an animal scent and it's all over. Conrad finds the animal scents only mildly engrossing.
 
Conrad is much more concerned about dogs than anything else. Humans are slightly unnerving, animals are entertaining but mostly frustrating. But dogs. Oh dogs! Dogs are IT for him. He's extremely concerned about social standing, who's who and what's what and where. In our house he enforces his alpha position to the letter of the law. At the dog park, he's the Mayor of Doggy Town, ressing the flesh and kissing babies. Marlowe, on the other hand, really is not concerned about any of those things at all. The pee-mail is interesting and everything but he doesn't really care about who's been there, their gender, their social status, their age or their size. It frustrates Conrad completely at home because he makes all these ritual social demonstrations and Marlowe does the dog equivalent of shrugging and walking away. It's like Conrad is Paris Hilton, checking the social register, scoffing at the faux-pas of others, jockeying to get into the best parties. And Marlowe is, well, he's me. []

he's the Mayor of Doggy Town

 
LOL! I use that phrase to describe Loki all the time! [] There cannot be one dog in the entire 19 acre dog park that has not been sniffed by Loki.
 
I can usually call Loki off of a scent, but Odin is the one who digs in and won't budge until he is done. Loki just recently starting marking--I think he got the behavior from Odin.

I have two intact  male basenji.  One will pee on some vertical thing, then the other.  They rotate who pees first, second, third, etc.  Now, I'm not sure what the first says in his pee-mail, but I'm pretty sure the second says "Not true, not true, not true."

Haha. What a cute post!! Our Loki ( I love that there's another Loki on the board! [] By the way, Terri - our Loki is the black and white guy in my picture. ) has to sniff everything he can get his nose in range of, and when he finds something good, he definitely will not budge. Julius could care less about many of the sniffs...he just turned a year old in August, and is still not even marking yet.

I have always wondered how the fire hydrant become the "pee-mail post office." I still remember my dad talking about when he first started working for the City Water Department. As the low-man on the totem pole he had to inspect the fire hydrants. He said that when he came home from work he had to take his clothes off and throw them on the floor to get his dogs to leave him alone. Dad said he could have streaked through the house covered in bacon and squeaking every dog toy they owned and those dogs wouldn't have noticed him until their were done with their "inspection."

our Loki is the black and white guy in my picture

 
He looks like a Loki! Such a cute boy (well they both are of course). Loki is a name that tends to fit a lot of dogs, because of the whole mischief thing. But there are some dogs that just look like Lokis. I saw a poodle at dog park once named Loki--did not fit him at all. [8D]