Do animals (dogs and others) poop to mark territory?

[Canaqua]

I’ve always thought peeing was a territory marking thing. But, we seem to have a poop war, heading towards poop armageddon, going on in our driveway.

Drive is 700 feet long and no domestic animals come here, except our two dogs. We walk down the drive every morning, with dogs, to deliver DS to the school bus.

EVERY day there is new, wild, poop on the drive, in increasingly creative places…bear and coyote mostly. Then, our dogs have to poop right near the bear and coyote poop. It’s like a minefield out there until I get out a shovel ;).

What IS this about? Do animals mark with poop? It’s a constant game of “oneupsmanship”. It’s pretty entertaining, but very messy. Why the driveway? There is lots of land on both sides, suitable for doing business, why the paved drive?

[wendy]

Fox certainly mark territory with poop. You’ll find fox putting their poop in prominent locations such in the middle of bridges and trail crossways. If you remove it they’ll put a new one back pretty quickly.

Never noticed that dogs mark territory with poop? Mine always try to poop way off the trail and in out-of-the-way places. But with dogs you never know how much of their behavior is training and habit. Maybe your dogs have decided you want them to go in that spot or something.

Mine dogs have never shown any interest in pooping where the coyotes poop. Or where the foxes poop.

[crosscreeksh]

FWIW…Our Great Pyrenes dog tries to poop on the tallest weed or tree branch he can find…I’m assuming that he thinks wild animals will think he is REALLY, REALLY BIG!! He pees on every wild poop pile, too.

[Calamber]

Yes, my Labrador most certainly marks with manure.

[gingerbread]

both of the dogs I have had often pooped near the poop that coyotes left as they crossed the edge of our property, across a road, continuing along a deer trail…don’t know if it is one-upmanship, or some other message like–“hey, this hunting area belongs to me!”
Both female dogs–and both marked with urine too, but not as systematically.
Both dogs were spayed, but it could it have even been a little flirting with the male coyotes? Or some other kind of canine conversation.