Submissive and Excitable Urination

Does your dog urinate at your feet when you greet her at the door? Perhaps she only does this with houseguests or certain people in the family. Maybe she does it when you yell at her or if you reach for her. Or perhaps she is excited and happy to see you, but can’t seem to “hold it in” at times.

Submissive urination is not a housetraining problem or an act of defiance. Some people call it excitement urination, but whatever you call it, it can be an annoying behavior that creates a mess in your house. An extremely submissive dog may even roll on her belly and urinate at the same time. These are innate social signals that demonstrate submission. It is NOT something dogs do to anger you. On the contrary, they’re actually trying to appease you, because your body postures have inadvertently become threatening and the dog is only responding to them.

It is most commonly seen in young and small dogs, and in dogs that have been punished severely in the past. With time and patience and a little readjustment on how you interact with your dog, it will most likely go away.

Here are a few tips to follow:

• Do not punish or yell at your dog if she urinates in front of you. This will make the problem worse.
• Upon arriving home, ignore your dog for five minutes or so until she calms down. Do not look at her, talk to her, or pet her during this time.
• You may want to quickly bring her outside when you get home, again not really interacting with her until she is outside. This may reduce or eliminate what you clean up in the house.
• When she does calm down, speak softly in a low-toned voice and praise her. Do not pet the top of her head or look her in the eye. This is a difficult thing to do because we all want eye contact with our dogs, but to a submissive dog, our actions can be perceived as threatening.
• Avoid bending over to pet your dog. Instead, crouch down on the floor and call your dog over to you, making sure to keep your body turned to the side, not directly facing your dog.
• Avoid high-pitched, excited tones of voice when talking to your dog, and frequently look away every few seconds while talking to your dog. This will help your dog understand that your voice and eye contact are not meant as a challenge.
• If your dog has a particular problem greeting visitors at the door, keep a treat jar nearby and have visitors toss treats a few feet away onto the floor. Alternately, if your dog is crazy about fetching, have a few toys available for visitors to toss. This keeps the dog in hunting/playing mode, as opposed to submissive mode.
• Always get down to the dog’s level to pet her. Instead of reaching out to pet the top of her head, touch her chest and neck first, pet her on her sides and back before attempting to pet her head.
• Always be calm and quiet.
• Do not grab her or chase her, or stare her in the eye.
  If you practice all of these things, it will calm her fears and give her confidence. You are showing your dog that you are safe and predictable and you are not going to hurt her.

A wonderful way to build confidence in a submissive dog is education. Attend an obedience class with your dog. After learning the basics, many dogs enjoy dog sports such as agility and flyball. You can even build your dog’s confidence by teaching her parlor tricks!

As she grows, her confidence will also grow and the bond she has with you will strengthen. This, of course, is the ultimate goal.