Submissive Urination

What is it?

You want your dog to exhibit certain submissive behaviors. These mean that they accept you as their leader (parent), and that you are in charge. This is healthier for your dog and promotes greater dog obedience. But for some dogs, especially shy female dogs, that submissiveness can lead to a behavioral problem known as submissive urination. Submissive urination can occur when:

· There is too much excitement (such as you or friends entering your home).

· There is fighting amongst family members.

· There are scary noises.

· There is some type of punishment towards your dog.

Because your dog is not acting out, and because it is not a health problem or even necessarily a housetraining problem, fixing submissive urination is somewhat easy. First you need to identify what is going on when the urination occurs, and then address it accordingly.

1) Tone down the excitement – When you show too much affection or play with your dog when coming home, it can get your dog too excited and cause the problem. The best thing to do is ignore your dog when you come home so that they don’t experience all that energy.

2) Praise your dog when they do good things – Some dogs suffer from low self esteem. The more you praise them, the more their self esteem will increase and they will be less prone to fear and timidity.

3) Don’t excite your dog on a full bladder – If your dog has nothing left to pee, your dog will be less likely to submissively urinate. This is great for when guests are coming and you do not have time to tell your guests to ignore your dog.

4) Don’t create more fear – If your dog pees as a response to yelling or scolding, you are probably saying much more than “no.” All you need is a single command to stop your dog from misbehaving. Anything else is overkill since dogs learn more from positive reinforcement than they do from punishment.

Your dog is not trying to break the rules when it submissively urinates. It is simply a response to being a submissive animal – something that in many ways you want. However, as is occasionally the case, a dog that is easily afraid may have problems with their urination. As a result, those simple tips should help you rid your dog of its submissive behavior.

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