Do dogs "mark their territory" with excrement?

We've all heard of dogs urinating on shrubs and bushes "marking their territory", however I've had occasion to have two dogs share the office on casual day, where one of them decided to go "number 2" in the middle of the hallway. The owner reasoned that "she was just marking her territory".

Is this true?

Yes they do. In fact some dogs will try and poo on something high up such as a tree stump when out to make it more visible and more at nose height for other dogs. It's a more visual form of calling card!

This is total bollox Report It

Marking is usually done with urine. I'd say the hallway deposit was due to a lazy owner who wasn't watching the signs that her dog needed to go out.

No....the owner needs to get off their rear end and take their dog out.

Nope not a territory thing at all. The owner has to take the dog out.

no thats usually jelousy

Let me put it to you this way.
Mine and I daresay most posters' dogs are quite capable of visiting houses-shops-offices and not doing this.
What the owner said was a cop out and his dog was either not house trained or desperate because he hadn't been 'walked' first.
Not only do dogs not do this-neither do responsible owners allow it

YES it is true! I worked at a dog daycare and boarding facility where one male un-neutered dog was so determined to claim everything he peed everywhere outside and when he ran out of pee he pooped everywhere outside. It was so bad the poor dog's butt looked raw from constantly trying to mark. He would try to get higher up on the chainlink and on items that were off the floor like table and chair legs. He was WAY too compulsive for daycare and wasn't allowed to come back.

I think they do. My Rhodesians will go at specific corners of my backyard. My male is a typical male dog., and even at 6 months old he'll # 1 and go to another spot and # 1, and sometimes again. Then he goes and sniffs all the spots he just went a few times and picks one and goes #2 finally. Then my Female whom is a year and a half, will go pick one of the spots I saw my male # 1 on, go some and stop in mid # 2, and prance over to the other side of the yard at one of the other spots my male used, and finish. Its like some kind of dance steps the do in the backyard. I thought about getting it on video one day, with some background music playing "The Merlitons" from the Nutcraker,lol! but some people might get offended. One way you can train your dogs to go in a specific area is to go to your local sporting goods store and get some Raccoon Urine. It comes in a littel brown bottle, and what you do is get a ziploc bag and the bottle and go outside\to the area by yourself. Then choose where you want your dog to go, and pour some in the spot. Then put the bottle in the ziploc bag, so when you go back in your dog doesn't smell it and wash your hands before interacting or even going back to the room where your dog is. Then when you let\take your dog out to potty he\she should go in that spot. They are going to go nuts looking for that "raccoon"! And they'll want to mark that spot where they think they went. Retrain as needed to get them to go in a particular area. I have yet to try this on my dogs but plan to soon when the weather gets warmer in the summer. I sent a link to a pic of it below...