peeing on people

[Dianne Winter]

hi everyone,
Buddy and I are doing really well, his training is going great. I wanted to discuss an incident that happened to me at the beach today. At 9am every morning we meet with a large group of dogs and owners at the beach. there are all sizes and ages of dogs and all dogs get on well. we walk up and down the beach for a good hour for socialisation. (dogs and people). today there was a new dog that came down. at first he(neutered) was a bit nervous perhaps showing some dominance, but sat still while the other dogs sniffed etc. after the dogs went off and played. probably about 10 mins later the new dog approached me from behind and promptly peed on my left leg. I was amazed and suprised as this had never happened to me before. the owner said his dog had never done that before either. After the group of dogs had disbanded buddy and i were walking up and down the beach for training purposes(he was on lead)when a cavalier king charles spaniel(neutered) approached me from behind and promptly peed on my right leg. Again that owner said that had never happened with his dog before either. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?????? Two dogs in one day!!!! Any help or answers will be greatly appreciated.
cheers
dianne

[MaxHollyNoah]

Hi Dianne,

I am sorry to hear that you got peed on twice in a row!

I am pretty sure those are marking behaviors, not just peeing on your legs. What were you wearing? The first thing came to me that your pants smelled some kind of smell that triggers dogs to mark over it. Then the second dog marked over the first dog's marking.

None of my dogs mark inside home or stores but I see many dogs mark at pet stores, on posts or sometime on merchandises. If I was their owners I would be very embarressed. My current foster dog marks a lot on his walks and in our yard so that is something I need to work on before I take him to pet stores

[Dianne Winter]

thanks maxhollynoah for your quick reply,
i was wearing 3/4 pants and had bare feet, nothing out of the ordinary. Buddy has never even tried to mark me ever, i even got him to smell where the first dog had peed and he didnt seem interested. i believe these were marking behaviours too. the only thing i can think of is that buddy gets neutered on monday, he is nearly 6 months old, and the other dogs may have sensed a change in his hormones on me??? what do you think? There were alot of dogs down the beach this morning, why didnt they all mark me? and what energy could i have been giving off that two dogs would have marked me? any ideas? What causes a dog to mark a human?

[MaxHollyNoah]

Hi Diane,

I don't think their target wasn't your leg but some smell where you were standing, or perhaps something on the sole of your sandals???

For us people, we orient things by what we SEE but for dogs things they smell have much more meanings. My dogs sniff very carefully on tree trunks or spots on the ground. I call that "reading newspaper"

Maybe someone else has a better reasoning, I hope