Submissive Urination

Submissive urination is when your dog urinates seemingly without control. He may be excited with his tail wagging and jumping up and down, or he may show humble body language with a drooped head and a curled under tail. The submissive wetting dog is not deliberately misbehaving but is responding due to excitement, apprehension or even fear. Submissive urination occurs most commonly in puppies and young female dogs. Most dogs outgrow this puppy elimination response as they mature, but some dogs retain this response to urinate, particularly under stressful conditions. When excited, intimidated or fearful, the submissive urinater will resort to the puppy response of emptying his bladder. Situations that might trigger urination in submissive dogs include: excitement (especially when greeting the dog), reaching for the dog, petting the dog on the head, maintaining eye contact and physical punishment or scolding.

Prevention and treatment of submissive urination includes:

• Avoid physical punishment and verbal reprimands (very important). Punishment and scolding will worsen the situation. Being calm and ignoring it works much better.

• When greeting the dog, kneel down and speak softly to the dog. Dogs that are very submissive may need to be ignored initially when the owner comes home (and avoid eye contact).

• Condition the puppy so that it sits for food when greeting people. If the puppy is busy sitting and eating a treat, it is much less likely to urinate at the same time.

• Each time someone comes to visit or the owner comes home, the pup should sit and then receive a reward. Only reward the calm, sitting behavior, as some puppies will urinate if excited.

• Obedience training and puppy socialization are important for the puppy to learn basic commands (sit, stay, etc), to build self confidence, and to alleviate fears.

We hope this information will help you and your puppy. If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at 473-0111.