Smaller dogs urinate higher up lamp posts to make themselves seem bigger to others, 'short dog syndrome' study finds

• Male dogs spray urine as a 'scent marker' for other dogs in the neighbourhood
• It communicates their health, sex, age and size
• Researchers found smaller dogs angle their urine so it hits lampposts higher
• Believed this is to fool other canines into think they are bigger

Smaller dogs often urinate higher on objects to fool other dogs into thinking they are larger, researchers have found.

Male dogs spray urine as a 'scent marker' for others, and it is know to include information about their age, health, sex - and size.

However, researchers now believe some small dogs try and cheat the system by angling their pee so it goes higher than their real body size.

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Cornell researchers now believe some small dogs try and cheat the system by angling their pee so it goes higher than their real body size.

Researchers at Cornell University led by Betty McGuire  found small dogs urinated more frequently than larger dogs, and were more likely to urinate towards vertically-oriented targets.

'Small adult male dogs may place urine marks higher, relative to their own body size, than larger adult male dogs to exaggerate their competitive ability,' the researchers wrote in the Journal of Zoology.

The team videotaped urinations of adult male dogs and, afterwards, measured height of urine marks and degree of raised‐leg angles. 

They found small dogs angled their legs proportionately higher when urinating than bigger dogs did, marking higher than expected for their size.

'Our findings support raised‐leg angle as a proxy for urine mark height and provide additional evidence that scent marking can be dishonest,' they wrote.  

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They found small dogs angled their legs proportionately higher when urinating than bigger dogs did, marking higher than expected for their size.

'Small males seemed to make an extra effort to raise their leg high—some small males would almost topple over', McGuire told New Scientist.

The team believe the move may be to try and avid confrontation with larger dogs. 

'Assuming body size is a proxy for competitive ability, small adult male dogs may place urine marks higher, relative to their own body size, than larger adult male dogs to exaggerate their competitive ability,' the team concluded.

'Direct social interactions with other dogs may be particularly risky for small dogs,' says McGuire. 

This risk may be why small dogs seem to prefer scent marking, doing so more often than large dogs; it allows them to establish a presence without interacting with competitors directly.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6023961/Short-dog-syndrome-Smaller-males-urinate-higher-lamp-posts-make-bigger.html