Driven to sniff Zeke's pee?

[Chris]

I'm wondering what you guys think of this behavior from Ty.

Ty has always been SO keen at sniffing Zeke's (older dog) pee, but it's not just a sniff 'oh that's Zeke' type of sniff, everything stops when Zeke pees and Ty must sniff for a long time then small licks, then run over to Zeke and Ty puts his nose under Zeke and sniffs again and often licks him.

If the dogs have been shut up for a number of hours I'll let them out for a fetch/tug game, as Zeke is quite lame these days he just chews on his toy in the yard while Ty is all go running back and forward. I can have Ty in full flight running as hard as possible back to me with the tug toy when he'll emergency stop, drop the toy and track down where Zeke has just peed. If I wait him out it can take up to 2 mins or more before he picks up the toy again. If I run up and grab the toy a few times he's come after me but not often. If I have a gentle tug with Zeke that can distract Ty but Zeke's pee seems to be a very power thing to Ty and I'd be keen to hear what anyone things about this.

[neilsattin]

Peeing is a way of transmitting information. It could be that this is one of Ty's ways of *connecting* with Zeke.