Urination – excitement or fear?
A member writes: Our Red-Tri Australian Shepherd (male, 7 months) is submissively urinating. We have been told to ignore it or we will make it worse.
My wife and son can play with him but I have to open the door and go outside before I can give him any attention or he will urinate like Niagara Falls.
I have read that it is a confidence issue with him but I am unsure how to build his confidence and stop this submissive behavior. It's really tough when someone comes to the house and I have to put him out in the yard before letting company in or he will urinate on their shoes.
Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Kingdom of Pets replies:
Submissive urination is triggered by fear and is generally accompanied by cowering, laid back ears, and narrowed eyes. Excitement urination, however, happens during play and when greeting and involves no submissive posturing. It sounds more like your Shepherd pup is displaying excitement urination –you come home and he is so excited that he loses control of his bladder.
Dealing with Excitement Urination
Pups generally grow out of excitement urination, but if they’re punished for it, or coddled or soothed when it occurs, the problem can persist.
There are several treatable problems behind “excitement urination”, so the first step is to take your dog to your local veterinarian for an examination to rule out any possible health-related causes. Once health problems are ruled out, the next step is to work on desensitization. There are, however, a few important points to keep in mind before you start to tackle the problem:
- Do not reprimand your dog for urinating - it is always an accident.
- Do not to reward your dog’s over-excited reaction by offering attention, ignore your dog till it is calm
- Do not praise or reward your dog while he is urinating; only praise/reward when he has relaxed
The desensitizing routine
You will need two people for this routine. Person 1 should be someone the dog remains calm around. Person 2 should be someone the dog urinates upon seeing.
Have the person the dog does not get over-excited with (Person 1) sit your dog next to them on a leash in a large open area that is free from distractions.
Person 1 should run through some familiar basic commands with the dog so they can treat him with some favorite treats when he responds correctly. After a minute or so have Person 2 approach but continue to ignore the dog. If the dog becomes excited both people should ignore him completely and Person 2 should move back a few steps. As soon as the dog is calm again Person 1 should praise him warmly but calmly, and run through a few commands again so the dog is focusing on them. Once again Person 2 should come a little closer. The idea is to do several short sessions of this everyday until the dog can see Person 2 without losing control. You are aiming for a situation where person 2 can walk all the way up to the dog, while he continues to focus on Person 1, calmly following commands or sitting quietly.
Ideally this Scenario should be repeated with various people playing the part of Person 2.
The ‘mealtime scenario’
Try changing feeding time to coincide with the usual time you arrive home from work. When you get to the house ignore both the person handling the dog (your wife) and the dog itself. Similarly your wife should ignore you. Your wife should then feed the dog immediately. This scenario allows your dog to choose between eating and his excitement urination. Hopefully he will find eating more attractive. (If he ignores his food, gets excited and urinates then don't feed him until later in the day, then try again.)
Clean up well
Clean up the urine with a pet odor neutralizer. If your dog tends to urinate in the same place then you could try using the odor neutralizer, waiting for it to dry, and then feeding your dog a treat on the spot. That way he will hopefully get the association between food and the area rather than it being a place that he can relieve itself.
Excitement Urination definitely takes time and training to overcome, and you will not get instant results.
Other things you can do
Consider protecting your carpet with a plastic drop cloth or an absorbent material where accidents are most likely to occur while the dog is still in training.
Keep greetings low key; ignore the dog until he's calm.
All the best,
Daniel Stevens and the Secrets to Dog Training Team
"Secrets to Dog Training - STOP Dog Behavior Problems!"
http://www.kingdomofpets.com/dogobediencetraining/
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