October 01, 2025
My 5 month old pup urinates when visitors greet her, what is the best course of action?
Full Question:
Hi Cindy and Ed,My housetrained 5 month old Cane Corso urinates whenever visitors come. Once she is used to the person it seems to be less but if its a new person or it's been a while since she has seen them she urinates quite a lot. On one instance it was three times in a row with the same person during the same visit whenever she used a high pitched (excited) voice. I have suspicions she will grow out of it but not sure.
What's the best course of action?
Kind Regards
Cindy's Answer:
I would not allow her to greet visitors, this is an involuntary response and the more she rehearses it the more likely it is to continue.
I would keep her leashed, don't allow people to greet her (especially someone like the person you describe with who triggered the problem multiple times) Leaning over, direct eye contact, talking in an excited tone, all these things can trigger submissive urination.
I don't allow my young dogs to greet visitors as a rule anyway, they don't have the self control and level of training for me to manage their interactions unless they are leashed. Usually, the hardest thing is to convince visitors that they need to ignore your pup. I usually just put my puppies/young dogs in a separate room when we have company if I have one that shows the tendency to urinate during greetings.
If managed to prevent her from rehearsing this behavior, she'll likely outgrow it.
I would keep her leashed, don't allow people to greet her (especially someone like the person you describe with who triggered the problem multiple times) Leaning over, direct eye contact, talking in an excited tone, all these things can trigger submissive urination.
I don't allow my young dogs to greet visitors as a rule anyway, they don't have the self control and level of training for me to manage their interactions unless they are leashed. Usually, the hardest thing is to convince visitors that they need to ignore your pup. I usually just put my puppies/young dogs in a separate room when we have company if I have one that shows the tendency to urinate during greetings.
If managed to prevent her from rehearsing this behavior, she'll likely outgrow it.
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