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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Jean is a graduate of Animal Behavior College and teaches basic obedience using positive motivation training techniques. She is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and has been teaching family dog basic obedience for three years. Jean is also a graduate of Northeastern University and is the co-founder of pupforum.com.
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4/24/2007
I have a male chow/collie mix about 3 1/2 yrs that I adopted over a year ago. He is a great dog but has a problem with I call it nervous peeing. He doesn’t care for men too much, he is always by my side and he never does this with me. Whenever my husband, who has shown him much love, takes him out he generally pees by the door as he is putting his leash on. We have a big backyard but not fenced in so we need to take dogs out on a leash to put on a trolly. Even when my husband walks past him he sometimes pees a squirt or two. I take him out usually to avoid this problem but inside the house accidents are happening. I don’t know if he was abused and this is a habit for him but I would love some help on how to help my little baby. He will even stay inside in the morning for hours instead of having my husband take him out, as he takes our other dog out (they go out separately) he will wait on me instead to take him. If he is laying on the bed, the couch, the floor, anywhere and my husband goes to pet his head and say hello to him.......squirt.......................please help..............thank you!!! (mtoverbey, Ohio)
What you are describing is called submissive urination and it’s a very common problem. Your dog is attempting to show your husband that he recognizes your husband as his superior. Your dog just doesn’t know any better way to show his submission. Let’s give him an alternative behavior, specifically, let’s teach him that you want him to sit.
Every
time you or your husband interact with your dog from now on, your dog should sit. He should be sitting to get anything he likes. He should sit before he gets a treat. He should sit before he gets fed. He should sit before you give him a toy. He should sit before you even pet or otherwise acknowledge him. You should be asking for a sit 50 times every single day. Any time your husband comes into the same room as your dog, he should ask your dog to sit. It’s important that he ask for the sit before your dog has a chance to urinate.
Try taking your dog outside, have him sit, and then have your husband approach slowly with a treat in his hand. If your dog breaks the sit, your husband should freeze and you should put him back into the sit. If your dog pees, your husband should go back inside and the exercise is over. If your husband gets all the way to your dog and he doesn’t pee, he gets to take the treat and you all go inside together. We are trying to get into your dog’s head that peeing = dad goes away, while not peeing = dad gives me a treat.
Submissive urination is just something dogs do to show that they know you’re the boss. They don’t instinctively understand how much we people don’t like it. He just needs to have something else to do that will make him feel he’s showing submission. It would also help if your husband took him to a basic obedience class. That would give him a whole list of alternative behaviors for when he wants to please your husband. (Sit, Down, Shake, etc.)
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