Is your dog a well-trained house-trained? Does she pee when you approach her door or when others reach out to pet her? Yikes! It can be difficult to deal with submissive or excitement urination. You may have to mop up the puddles and spray enzyme cleaners all over your carpet.
These are the three most important facts to know about excitement peeing and submissive peeing:
These behaviors aren’t gender-biased. They can happen to any dog, male or female.
What is excitement urine?
Excited urination, also known as “gleepee”, is most common in hyper dogs, who may not have full bladder control. As dogs mature and become more emotionally stable, they often learn to control their bladders better. If the dog is calm and demonstrates excitement, it will usually take a few months or more for them to mature.
This is how to stop your dog from urinating in excitement.
Get your dog to do a lot of aerobic exercise. This includes off-leash running, chasing a ball, flying disc, rough-and–tumble play with a canine play-pal and plenty of “sniffari”, as well as time spent with toys that enhance mental stimulation. Boring, repetitive walks on leashes, no matter how long, are not going to work. (For good enrichment toys, please see “The Best Food-Dispensing toys” WDJ April 2019. You can also find other games you can play with your dog at “Are Canines Cognitive?” October 2017.
Train calm behaviors. You can teach your dog calm behaviors such as “Settle,” Relax, or “Go to Your Mat.”
Another great resource for teaching your dog how to relax is the “Karen Overall Protocol for Relaxation”. Complete directions for the protocol can be downloaded at this link: https://bit.ly/Pryor_relax.
Set a calm example. Your dog will learn to trust you more if you can be calm and patient with her. A calm, quiet greeting when you return home can reduce the likelihood of glee-pee accidents. You can save the excitement-pumping, high-energy activities outdoors.
No punishment, ever. Remember, your dog can’t help it. You could lose your cool with your dog over her excitement about urination. This can lead to a dog who is fearful of you and will submissively urinate. This behavior can be more difficult to change than the adolescent excitement urine urination. Count your blessings.
What is submissive urine?
Submissive urination can be a frustrating and difficult behavior to deal with. However, it is an important communication tool for dogs. Dogs who feel threatened by another dog can sometimes deflect that threat by showing submission or appeasement behavior. This includes a lower behind-the-vertical posture, flattened ears and squinty eye, and a tucked tail. Sometimes, this can include rolling onto their backs and submissive urine.
Humans seem to naturally reach for dogs’ heads in greeting. Although some dogs may be happy to greet strangers with this greeting, others may find it too overwhelming. Dogs who feel anxious about meeting new people will likely find it excessively stimulating and may even urinate. Nancy Kerns.
Your dog will try to deflect and appease your anger by threatening you with punishment or an angry response. This is how to stop your dog from urinating in submissive ways.
Approach your dog in a calm, non-threatening way. Although you may not mean to appear intimidating, it is possible for you to be perceived as a threat if your approach is too aggressive. Instead, let your dog approach you by kneeling sideways. Encourage your family and friends to do the same.
Do not reach over, but under. People seem to be inclined to pat dogs on the head. Some dogs may actually enjoy this and some dogs can tolerate it. For most dogs, reaching above their heads can be quite annoying. This is especially true for dogs that are more likely to submissively urinate because they are already worried about humans.
Instead of reaching for their heads, educate yourself to rub dogs on the chest or under the chin. It will be appreciated by many dogs. Dogs that are prone to submissive urine will also appreciate it.
Be calm and slow. Your dog will be less likely to need you to soothe her.
You can manage the dog’s pee. You can use doggie diapers to reduce stress and help your dog to stop peeing when you greet him. While they won’t stop urination completely, they can be a useful tool to keep you from becoming annoyed at your dog or minimize the amount of puddle cleanup.
Even if your dog doesn’t urinate inadvertently, she can still read the body language signals you send to her in response. This will give her the message that she needs more attention and to release more pee.
Let your dog greet visitors outdoors. If your dog does urinate involuntarily, you don’t have to clean up and there is no stress for her.
You can use desensitization and counter-conditioning to get rid of the triggers that cause your dog’s urination. Start by identifying the situations that are most likely to cause submissive urination in your dog. Next, you can counter-condition your dog to accept less stressful situations.
If your dog pees often when you reach towards her, then move your hand slightly towards her and give her a treat. Your reach towards your dog should gradually increase until your dog is comfortable and urinating less frequently.
It doesn’t matter if you use a marker, such as a clicker or the words “Yes !”);” to reinforce her behavior. Instead, you’re trying to change her emotional response from anxious or scared to happy. You will eventually be able reach out to your dog without any peeing on the ground and can even pet her under the chin.
Trusted friends can do the same so that she can generalize her new association (“People reaching out for me make treats happen!”). to other people. Do the same for her while you wait to counter any human behavior that might cause her to urinate involuntarily.
Keep positive to prevent submissive urination
These involuntary peeing behavior can be frustrating and difficult, but you can help your dog overcome them. When we adopted Bonnie, our wonderful Scottie/Corgi/Poodle-mix at the age of 11 months (after her owners surrendered to a shelter because they “couldn’t housetrain” her), she almost always urinated when greeting humans. My husband and me worked together to desensitize Bonnie to human greetings and interactions. In fact, my students from the dog-training academy got extra credit for being able to greet Bonnie without having to pee. When she was three years old, Bonnie stopped submissive urination and has not done it since. This is possible with your dog!
Submissive Urination and Excitement Uination Whole
