What Do Dogs Smell Before They Pee?

Whether they're urine-marking or relieving themselves, dogs tend to sniff around before they eliminate. This is because dogs' urination rituals are significantly different from humans', and are largely influenced by their powerful sense of smell. The information that a dog picks up from smelling explains why he's so dedicated to sniffing out just the right place before doing his business.

  1. Hormonal Codes

    • To a dog, urine is more than just waste. His urine -- and every other dog's -- is coded with hormonal information that identifies him. And because a dog's sense of smell is so strong, he can pick up on the scents left behind by other dogs. While his decision to urinate or not urinate in a given spot depends on other factors, the universal reason that he sniffs before peeing is because he can pick up so much information about the world around him by doing so.

    Placing Personal Ads

    • Intact dogs urine-mark more often than fixed dogs. Urine-marking is spraying a relatively small amount of pee. This is how they advertise themselves to other dogs. An intact dog smells before peeing because he's picking up the scents of other intact dogs, and he's leaving something for them to find as well. While spayed or neutered dogs still smell before urinating and are less likely to mark in this fashion, it isn't with the same mate-seeking intent.

    Give and Take

    • Even a spayed or neutered dog may smell around before urinating, because these are territorial animals. For example, if a dog catches a whiff of an unusual scent in his usual stomping grounds, he may sniff it out and pee as a deliberate way of leaving his own scent behind. This is why many dogs end up peeing on the same objects, like trees and fire hydrants: Each wants to claim at least a share of the communal property.

    Detecting Interesting Scents

    • Sometimes, a dog urinates on something he simply finds appealing or interesting as a way of identifying it as his. Remember, a dog's nose is strong -- generally a minimum of 10,000 times stronger than yours -- so by sniffing around, he can find something interesting about even a seemingly mundane patch of grass, rug or pant leg. What exactly he smells there may be a mystery, but if a dog smells something he likes, he may claim it for his own the best way he knows how.