Sprayer

[Alan D. Pike]

I have a 4 month old german shepherd puppy that has been successfully house trained. He is also well trained in sit, stay and fetch and is proving a fantastic dog learning very enthusiastically. His training has been mostly with my son who did a training course through a branch of an SPCA and is now using sitstayfetch course as well. Unfortunately his one drawback is that whenever I play with him or let him out of his kennel in the mornings he will not urinate on the grass as he does with everyone else but tries to play and show his affection while jumping up and trying to catch my hand and consequently sprays all over me. Every morning I take him straight to the grass patch where he normally goes and try to wait for him to relieve himself but he is too impatient, urinating a bit, but not completely and hense marking me once he feels he has finished. I tried getting him to sit but he just sprays further instead of what I was hoping, that he would stop. I love the puppy and try to spend as much time as possible with him but I am running out of patience as being the only one he sprays on. Please advise

[Todd]

Hi there and thank you for your question.

Hmmm sounds like quite the situation but with some training i am sure he will be a great and well behaved pup.

The issue does seem to be based around over excitement, you are probably the one person who he wants to get attention from the most.

The aim of the training is to not reward him when he is being over-excited. At the moment through no fault of your own your pup is getting rewarded when he is overexcited.

From now on you have to completely ignore him when he is being overexcited. This means no eye contact, no body language, no talking to him and no comforting him. The second he calms down give him attention but keep it low key so not to over excite him. If he again gets overexcited ignore him and start again.

The process will take a long time but with consistency and time i am sure you will have success. Don't be tempted to reprimand him as this may force him to become a nervous urinator.

Good luck and please let me know how things go

Todd

[Alan D. Pike]

Thanks, Todd.

I will try this and let you know.