Just like their wild ancestors the wolves, dogs routinely do very strange activities or routines around eliminating waste. Both female and male domestic dogs engage in marking behaviors, just like wolves in the wild. While the purpose of marking the territory is important for wild animals it is often just frustrating and possibly even a bit embarrassing for owners of domestic dogs.

It is important to realize that these behaviors are instinctual and are not your dog's way of getting back at you for something you have done. In the wild only the male and female alpha wolves within the pack urinate to mark the territory and it is interesting to note that they both actually lift their leg to urinate. Domestic dominant female dogs often do the same thing. In the wolf pack all subordinate wolves squat to urinate, just like typical female dogs. Marking in the wild is not just on the corners or edges of the territory, but throughout the territory. Dogs do the same behavior, urinating against many different objects along your walking route or even in their own yard area. Dogs and wolves will both remark their own spot whenever they pass, not to cover up another dog or wolf's urine but as a response to the smell of their own urine. This marking and marking over strengthens the scent for other dogs or wolves that follow.

Another wolf like behavior seen in almost all domestic dogs is the use of feces to mark their area. Feces, also know as scat in wild wolf populations, is another way to leave a scent behind. Dogs and wolves will deposit feces all over the area they consider their own; they do not typically simply use one corner of the yard or one part of their native range. This is something that many dog owners need to realize, it is perfectly normal and almost instinctual for the dog to want to urinate and defecate in and around anything that is considered his or hers. Owners can teach their dogs to use one particular area as a bathroom, but this does require training and overriding of those primitive instincts.

Finally some dogs will scratch with their front or back feet to further mark the ground where they have urinated or defecated. This may be to add the scent from the glands in their feet to the area or it may also serve as a sort of attention getting behavior to indicate the territory is already taken. Sometimes owners mistakenly think this is an effort to cover the waste like a cat when it reality it is actually to bring more attention to the spo