Submissive Urination

When you notice that your puppy is urinates all over the floor whenever it becomes aroused, intimidated, or excited, you may have a submissive urinator on your hands. One thing that you have to keep in mind is that this is not the fault of the puppy, no matter how embarrassed or frustrated you get because of it.

Puppies who are naturally shy or timid, along with puppies that have owners who are intense or yell a lot are subject to end up with a lot of submissive urination.

This is not an uncommon thing in puppies but the thing is, it can be rather messy and it can carry on over into adulthood. Most of the time, puppies or dogs will get overly excited when there are loud noises, when they are being scolded, when there are arguments between people in the house, when guests arrive, when you arrive home and even when there is an over abundance of affection when you greet each other after being apart.

Before you can learn how to address this problem, you have to understand why dogs do this. You are the master. You are the pack leader – the alpha. It is the “job” of the puppy or dog to show that they are submissive to you. This is what causes a dog to avert their eyes if you stare at them in the eyes. It is also what causes them to roll on to their backs and urinate all over the floor. The puppy is showing that it is submissive to you and that you are the boss of the show.

The first thing you want to do is to have your vet check out your puppy to rule out any possible medical problems that could be causing the extra urination. If the puppy comes back with a clean bill of health then you have a pup that is urinating to show his submissiveness to you. Now it is time to fix the problem.

One thing you can do is to down play your greeting with your pet when you first come home. You will want to make sure that friends and family are doing this as well. Either simply give your dog a little “hello” or ignore him completely until he calms down and then you can greet each other.

Putting a limit on how often your dog drinks water will help with this although it will not completely control it. At best, your submissive urinator will tinkle just a little. In addition, while you will continue to remain in control, it is important to make sure that you are building up the self confidence of your dog. Praise your puppy when he does things that meet your approval. Show him that he is loved and that he is a good dog.

The more time you spend working on this problem, the less frequently it will happen. This is something you have to be patient with. There is not a cure for this as it is a natural reaction for the puppy but it is something that you might be able to help get under control.