Cosmo has now made it to adolescence and is forming some long-term habits. One of these worries me. More often than not, he doesn't lift his leg or squat to pee. It's getting to the point that while he's peeing he's also sniffing his surroundings and walking while going. He also often steps on the spot where he just peed. Naturally I'd prefer to change this behavior. Otherwise I'm constantly cleaning him up after a quick pee break. What's worse, others who take him out are probably not cleaning him up after his pee break. I'm guessing that this is more common in the short-legged breeds. Any thoughts on reversing this behavior? 

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Jackson does the same thing!  It's kind of funny to watch.  He usually only lifts his leg if he's peeing on an inanimate object (ie: fire hydrant), and then he lifts it so high he almost falls over.  Sometimes if one of the other dogs is peeing, he'll go and start peeing there with his leg lifted, and ends up peeing all over them.  Mostly though, he walks, sniffs and pees all in one.  I think it's related to his short-attention span!
Sparty lifts his leg so high he almost tips over and Izzy (a girl) also lifts her leg. Some dogs will take a little longer to get the idea so don't give up on him yet!
Noodles usually lifts his leg and still to this day, if he isn't paying attention, he might lose his balance. Sometimes his little foot is barely off the ground. He squats quite often as well. I love the comment about being a dump truck in order to poo...that is exactly what he looks like! Noodles doesn't move when doing either, he stays in one place.
Well it sounds like Cosmo is in good company! ;-) Thanks everyone for the comparison notes and ideas. I'll try to lead him to an appropriate vertical object that may stimulate a "leg-lifting salute."
Caius has only ever squatted, and still does.
I don't know about this only being a short-legged dog thing: our boy Truman, the newfie-mix (a BIG boy) never did lift his leg to pee.  In his whole 12 years of life, I saw him lift once, and that was a marking pee (not a serious pee).
All three of mine do the different things at different times, the leg lifting, the squat, the semi squat and the standing there sniffing the air.
Sometimes Po doesn't lift his leg when he pees, but his tail goes right up (it reminds me of a water pump when he does that) and he never pees and walks, he's always stood still. He was neutered fairly early (5mo) and still learnt the leg lifting behaviur though he does socialise with other male dogs.
I would say to give it some more time. It took Baxter a long time to lift his leg. He was probably well into one year old before he did it. He was neutered at 4 months and I was worried he might not learn to lift because he was neutered so early.

My female does a combination: she squats AND lifts her right leg…so she stands on 3 legs.

I think each has their own "style."

My 4 females all squat to pee - maybe they pee without squating and we don't even notice.  One of the girls goes out of the way to make sure she piddles on top the same spot as the other girls.  When they were very young all of them would just take a leak without squating on occasion - kind of like peeing on the run.  They've all grown out of this.

 

When we had a male dog when he got old, like 8 or 9 he would do what you are describing especially when he got excited.  When he got older still it was funny watching him try to lift his leg cause he really didn't get much lift at all. 

 

One of the reasons we don't own a male dog is because every male dog we've ever owned had to mark his territory - ie. they pissed in the house.  A spray here, a spray there we hardly noticed it - surely he did it when we weren't looking.  When we pulled up the carpet and painted the walls it was real obvious that would had been going on.

With three neutered males, the routine goes like this:

Tom pees, always lifts his left leg

Ben pees, sometimes falling over because he looses his balance, lifting either leg so high

Pat (the alpha) pees last on top of every single other drop from the others.

 

Tom will only poop in private and goes out of his way to find a place away from anyone or at the very least, facing away from everyone

Ben poops as soon as he leaves the house in the a.m....and i mean within a few steps!

 

And Pat does the dumptruck trick of backing into trees, bushes, etc.

 

Don't you find that "Corgi Crouch" pretty amazing?

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