Why do dogs raise one foot while urinating?

for maximum relaxation

Dog raise its foot during urine for a protection purposes, base on myth long time ago there was a group of dogs with 10 members, one ask permission to urine in a corner a quite far, minutes and hour passed it did not comeback, some were curious and made some investigation, when they arrived in the area they saw their colleague dead covered by a ruin wall. It was the time the council of the dogs made a decree that no one will urine without rising it foot to protect itself from disgrace.

This is for marking territory. If a dog do not lift his leg aim at something off the ground, then his urine will drop into the ground and its effect will be lost very fast. May be at the hight they leave urine marks are easily picked up by others.

An ideal question would have been why dogs love urinating on car / bike tyres!

Goes back to marking territory. A dog will mark his territory and another dog will come along and lift his leg higher, effectively challenging the mark. It's a pissing contest, really, whoever pisses the highest, wins. I have a miniature Dachshund who turns his entire rear body sideways to get the maximum height on whatever he's peeing on, and he doesn't care if he has to stand on his hind legs to sniff the other dog's pee! He gets so serious, and when he comes back down, he pushes dirt back with his legs energetically. From my personal observations it seems to matter more than butt sniffing in greeting.

Frankly, it's always reminded me of businessmen jockeying for position next to the CEO in meetings, but I don't really know why that is, as I don't know if they do the same thing at the urinals.

The male canine (dogs, wolves and others) raises one foot to rotate the pelvis in the opposite direction. The way the male dog's urethera is positioned it will allow the stream of urine to emit away from the body to the side.

It is important that canines do not urinate on themselves because that odor is a marking scent and may alert others to their presence outside their territory should the inadvertently urinate on themselves.

Female canines often squat to urinate for a similar purpose.

Not all dogs lift their back leg. But if they do, to direct the stream of pee else where so they don't pee on themselves. You don't want to pee on yourself, and neither do they. Males also mark their territory while urination and their aim is higher and at nose level for all other dogs in the area. Females come visit me and all other males had best bug off! Oh, and females squat cause it is more sensable because of their structure.

Ok, not all females squat. There are some unusual ones out there, but overall, it is usually the males who raise their leg while urinating. - This is to make their scent go higher so other dogs will have to smell higher to smell the urine.

Only male dogs do that. The female dogs squat. Dont forget some dog species dont lift a hind leg either.

Good observation on this one but it doesnt apply to all dogs. My guess is that the taller the dog, the more spash it makes on their bodies so they have learned to angle the pee stream.

Males do that to aim at their target. I've seen male dogs that don't lift a leg and as a result they land up urinating on the back of their front legs.

Dogs mark their territory by urinating and are trying to leave a scent mark at the highest possible spot

dogs raise there one foot to urinate because if they raise one leg up then walls of house will not fall into it