Dear Adam:  I have a mixed-breed puppy (German shepherd/border collie mix) which is 4 months old. It’s very friendly with people but when it approaches people it urinates all-over. The same happens when I come home in the evening. It becomes very excited and urinates on the carpet.

Is that a submissive behavior? How can I solve this problem?

Thanks,
Bhabani

Dear Bhabani: For some peace of mind, have him checked by your vet to make sure the problem is strictly behavioral and isn’t medically related. Once you have the results from the tests, you can start from there. If the dog is otherwise house-trained, it is more likely a submissive behavior. You can help reduce it by increasing the dog’s confidence level.

Agility is a great start for that. Don’t create as much excitement around the dog when he’s known to exhibit the behavior. When you come home, ignore him until he’s calm enough to greet. Is he kept in a crate while you’re gone? This can help you by allowing you to come home and immediately take the dog outside to potty.

By staying in the crate, he will be more loathe to potty in it because dogs have an inhibition to using the same area as a toilet and a den. The same goes with guests. If a guest comes, they must ignore the dog and not fuss over it until it is calm. Do not correct him for urinating. Correcting submissive urination will only make the behavior worse.

I have an eleven month old English Springer Spaniel “Rio”. For the past nine months I have been using clicker training, the gentle leader, and various other methods with no success. The trainer who was helping me told me our dog was untrainable, which I didn’t believe because she is so smart.

I purchased an electronic collar not necessary, but sure makes dog training faster and life easier! and a pinch collar per your advice. Within two days I have a well behaved dog. She walks at my side, she is no longer running wild all over the house and jumping on all the furniture. She is so good, she sits in my lap at night, she no longer jumps on the counters. Thank you again. I still have one problem with Rio. She has submissive urination. She is out growing it. She probably only has an accident every 2 weeks.

Usually when I put the leash on her to take her for a walk. Do you have any suggestions how to solve this problem permanently? – Maryann and “Rio”

Dear Maryann:

Excellent! I’m always happy to hear stories like this. Regarding the submissive urination: If you’ve already confirmed that your dog doesn’t have a bladder or urinary tract infection (unlikely) & then all you can really do is ignore the submissive urination.

She will grow out of this. It usually happens when a young dog gets excited, and very often, the dog isn’t even aware the she is doing it. Which makes it impossible to correct. For now, just try keeping the dog calm until you’re outside. She will outgrow this behavior. It really has nothing to do with housebreaking.

I read the book. Here’s my question. My dog wets on the spot when ever she gets excited about seeing someone. Every time I or my daughter go outside, she wets herself as she is trying to greet us. She’s potty trained and knows where she needs to go eliminate. My friend owned her. She was an indoor dog that ended up being an outdoor dog.

My friend didn’t know how to train her out of doing this. I got her because I don’t mind having an outdoor dog. She does not have a bladder problem (it was ruled out by a vet). I would still like to train her out of this since she gets her pee all over our feet if we are not quick enough.

- Yolanda Dear Yolanda: You have not mentioned the dog’s age. It’s my guess that she’s still young. This behavior is known as submissive urination. Even though the dog may or may not be showing overt submissive body language. This is one of those few behaviors that most dogs will actually “grow out of,” upon reaching maturity.

Usually between one to two years of age. If the dog is older and is still exhibiting this behavior, there are three things you can do to reduce the likelihood that she will sprinkle: – Start the dominance building exercises, as described in my book. – Be aware of your body language when your first walk into the yard. Do not bend over the dog. In fact, you might try ignoring the dog for the first 10 minutes you are in the yard. – Start feeding the dog hot dogs, from a standing-upright position. Have house guests do the same.

A dog owner named Ellen writes: I have a 12 month old golden retriever. When I am at work during the day she is in an outside kennel. The kennel has a concrete floor that is slanted to allow for drainage. I live in Wisconsin and when the snow melts, drainage is an issue even though I keep the kennel shoveled out.

Here is my problem: Abby has decided to always pee up on the high end of the kennel. Therefore, there is always urine all over the kennel and she ends up with it in her fur and it stinks. Is there any way to get her to change her place and go at the end of the kennel? All other dogs I have had just did this naturally. I can’t bathe her all the time as this drys her skin and she gets hot spots. I’ve already tried sanitizers and odor neutralizers on it to get her to use another place. She is fully house trained when she is inside. Thanks for your help.

- Ellen Dear Ellen: It’s an interesting question. It would be impossible to train her to urinate at the back end, as you’re not present to correct her when she urinates on the front end. But here are a couple of possible solutions:

1.) There are shampoos available that allow you to bathe the dog VERY FREQUENTLY without drying the skin. You should contact a couple of groomers to see what they recommend.

2.) You can buy rubber matting from catalog companies like Fosters and Smith or RC Steele– consult the tape “Where To Buy Pet Products At Rock Bottom Prices” that came with your kit. These mats allow the urine to drain through so that the dog is not standing in or laying in his urine all day.

3.) Try tacking some sheets of plastic or other material (perhaps reflective) to the front of the kennel run. Hopefully, the dog will be psychologically deterred from urinating on it.

Greg asks: My dog is a 5 month old boxer/shepherd mix who pees submissively/excitedly upon greeting friends or anyone really who arrives home.

Occasionally, even if he has been calm inside his kennel cage, he will pee in the cage when I go to greet him to take him out.

I have tried having everyone, including myself, be very low key when greeting him and trying not to excite him. It does not work. I have not been correcting him for this submissive/excitement peeing because I did not want to make him more submissive or nervous. His problem seems to be more excitement than submissive to me but I am new at puppy training. He does not lay down and roll over on his back when he pees and does not display typical submissive behavior. He usually does it by standing up and peeing while he greets you. I have even made him stay in a sit while he is greeted and he still pees. HELP!!!

Thank you in advance,
Greg

Dear Greg,

Thanks for the e-mail.

Yes… you are right in your assertion to not correct the dog for submissive urination.

I hate to tell you this, but barring any kind of urinary tract infection (you should have him checked just to be on the safe side) this is simply a phenomena of his young age. We usually see it in males, and usually of certain breeds. For some reason it’s quite prevalent in working breeds.

The best you can do is to leave the crate next to the door and immediately open the crate and run him outside. But even doing this, like you stated, sometimes he may urinate in the crate.

The good news is that this is simply a facet of youth. The dog doesn’t even know he’s doing it. All I can really advise is that you tough it out for another couple of months. At the most, he should be over it by 11 months. But usually they pass through it at around 7 months of age.

As the dog gets older, his temperament will firm up, too. And this will make the submissive urination problem disappear.

You can also try building up the dog’s confidence by doing some of the dominance building exercises referenced in the book, in reverse. Play tug of war with him and let him win. Build him up a bit. But regardless, this is a symptom of the dog’s youth.