[Zairah]

My just over 1 year old lab/poodle/spaniel mix has always had a bit of a problem with both excited and submissive peeing. When she was very young she would pee when excited very often, and submissive pee randomly but not as frequently.

She seems to have (mostly) gotten over excited peeing now. I thought she had gotten over submissive peeing as well, but did it not long ago when we had my mom visit from out of town. She greeted us at the door, then head and tail both down sniffed my mom with a little trail of pee behind her.

We have always just ignored both, people told us it would likely go away with age and it has for the most part. My concern is if dogs tend to submissive pee when scared....why is she scared? She LOVES people, dog parks are more people parks to her. She likes other dogs as well but can get a little shy and overwhelmed by ones that show too much interest in her.

So my question is do we continue to ignore it? Is she lacking self confidence and we should be doing something to help her with that?

Thanks!

Edit: Not sure if it matters at all, but she was the easiest dog ever to house break. We got her when she was 8 weeks old and within the first week she 'got it" and by 12 weeks she was pretty reliable at it.

 

[doxiemommy]

Submissive/excited peeing isn't a matter of housetraining. It's about the fact that she basically loses control of her bladder when she's excited or nervous/scared. I have a dog, 2.5 years old, who pees EVERY darn time he sees my dad. Keep in mind, he LOVES my dad, and when we go visit my folks he follows my dad around, and sits on his lap and loves attention from my dad. But, when we first get there, he pees the minute he sees my dad. So, we always make sure that we have them greet each other outside, so there's no mess inside.

Submissive peeing doesn't have to be because she's scared. It could be that she's excited to see your mom, or just unsure about her, if she doesn't visit often she may not remember who she is. OR, she's peeing from being submissive: she's a bit nervous and is showing she is no threat to your mother.

Usually, people say they do grow out of it. Harper doesn't do it anymore, to anyone except my dad.

 

[qingcong]

She seems to have (mostly) gotten over excited peeing now. I thought she had gotten over submissive peeing as well, but did it not long ago when we had my mom visit from out of town. She greeted us at the door, then head and tail both down sniffed my mom with a little trail of pee behind her.

We have always just ignored both, people told us it would likely go away with age and it has for the most part. My concern is if dogs tend to submissive pee when scared....why is she scared? She LOVES people, dog parks are more people parks to her. She likes other dogs as well but can get a little shy and overwhelmed by ones that show too much interest in her.

So my question is do we continue to ignore it? Is she lacking self confidence and we should be doing something to help her with that?

I don't think there is much of a difference between submissive and excitement peeing. They're convenient labels for us, but for the dog the baseline emotion under either peeing event is not so different. The dog is not thinking, "boy I'm being so submissive right now!" It's not that the dog is scared, it's that when people come over it's a big deal. There's a strong emotion happening and it leads to peeing. You have to make sure people who visit IGNORE your dog, as if she does not exist. No talking, no petting, no looking. What you want to teach the dog is that people = no big deal, and thus no need to get all worked up over it.

Also, you don't have to give up the affection she receives at dog parks. What happens there has little bearing on how she reacts to people when they visit the house. Dogs do not generalize behavior between different environments, unless you specifically work on it.

 

[chubby]

My friend's little toy poodle does that a lot when greeting new guests. Before you bring them in, ask them to enter the room quietly, with slow movements and to ignore the dog for the first little while until the excitement fades away. For extreme measures, you can ask the person to not look or speak to the dog, and to even enter the room in such a way to not directly face the dog - i.e. sideways/avoiding be direct to the dog. This may help with the submission peeing. Once the dog is calm, then they can receive some quiet petting/cooing from the guests.

Hope this helps!

 

[nene]

We had a Westie who was a submission wetter. She was also the smartest and sweetest dog we ever had. It is important for the humans to keep entering and leaving the home low key. We would not acknowledge her for about 10 minutes when we would come home and instructed vistors to do the same-dont even look at her. This will help alot and yes it does get better with age. She is still young. She is just more sensitive than the average dog.