color/leg lifting

Question
Hello, I have a little over 2 yr old standard male. Awesome dog! I have two questions.
1. He doesnt lif his leg when urinating, if he would not urinat eon his front feet this wouldnt be an issue for me. We have neighbors dogs come and urinate on the tree in our yard to try to intise him to lift but this has not worked. Any advice? We cant put poms on his legs because he pees on them.  
2. He is solid balck and all in is litter were solid black. His parents were Brown and white dad and apricot mom with lots of creams, white and browns in the backround. I noticed when he was about 6 months he was getting stray gray almost white hairs and as he gets older the stray grey/white are more and real sporatic. What could cause this?
Thanks
Tina  

Answer
Hello Tina,
As to your dogs leg lifting problem, there isn't much you can do other than to try to move him as he is peeing if he starts hitting his leg.  Male dogs lift their leg when they pee to get the urine smell as high as they can to let other dogs know (or at least think) that they are large. Sometimes if a dog is neutered early, they don't get the desire to mark their territory and therefore don't ever lift their leg.  One thing I had success with for my dog that squats instead of lifting his leg is to put the bags that newspapers come in over his front legs so that they don't get wet.  It helps alot.  

The reason that he is getting the white hairs in his coat is because the Brown color is a fading gene and he is starting to fade some.  The fact that his father is a Brown and White parti and that he has Cream, White and Apricot in his background will also contribute to the white hairs in his coat.  

I hope this helps you some.  If you have other questions for me, please feel free to ask.

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim