I was wondering about submissive wetting. My dog was doing this 3/5 days a week for a month or two 1 to 3 times a day. I never hit her or punished her but I am loud with her when she runs over the cats. I just yell no or stop or lay down. I have to teach her but it seems she thinks IM being mean. Lately she is so much better she has not done it for a strait 9 days until today. I just bent over to pet her I was playing and saying her name and she squatted and looked afraid of me for no reason. when I also go to bath her she gets afraid. I am the one though that feeds her and does 90% of everything for her, my husband does not get the wetting when he pets her or calls her. what could be going on? sometimes she is exited and does it but sometimes her ears are down like she is scared. she does it mostly when she has not seen me for a while. the other day I had to go out it was raining so I kennel her and did not leash her. up and she seemed afraid of me a few hours after seeing me. thinking that maybe I had punished her. I always gove treats in the kennel. she has done this wetting since about the 3rd day I got her. I was wondering if something may have happened to her before I got her to make her afraid of me, now that I am her master owner? and since I am her owner is this why she will not pee for my husband? I done all her sit stay fetch and basic training. She was checked for blader problems nothing was there. I had posted about this before. She seems to love me jumps on me and lays by me all the time so whats going on? Thanks

As long as you ruled out any health problems, she's just extremely submisive. Accept it, deal with it. Doesn't mean you did any thing bad to her, doesn't mean she thinks you're a bad or scary person. In fact, to a point, you can see it as a compliment as she obviously sees you as her leader. Don't let this make you feel guilty or bad about yourself. Just keep in mind she is a very sensitive dog so keep any corrections mild and even avoid them if possible.

If she's being slinky (that's what we always call our dogs when they are acting submisively, the typical low to the ground looking up like they just did something bad) and cowardly towards you for no obvious reason, again, don't take it personally. Don't come up with silly ideas that she's mad at you, or you did something yesterday to hurt her feelings.

My last dog urinated submisively like that too. Almost always and guaranteed when I saw him first thing in the morning after waking up, or when I came home from being out for a while. I couldn't even look directly at him or he would loose it. Even if I stopped and stood there (and he was anticipating some sort of contact from me, eye contact, petting, etc) he would loose it. So the routine was always when getting up in the am or comming into the house, do not look at the dog! Walk quickly, call his name plesantly, say hi plesantly, walk him right to the back door, open the door, and say "go potty". He would then run out, do a pee, come back in, and it was safe to greet him. He actually wouldn't show extreme submisive behaviour once he came back from his pee. He would look happy and relieved and just wanted to do normal doggy greeting protocols. I think his previous owners used to punish him for the submisive peeing, and he knew that was wrong, he just couldn't help himself.

Also, similar as to what you said about your dog, he was fine with strangers. He was very friendly and outgoing, just looooved people. As soon as he got to know a person for an extended period of time (a few visits perhaps) he would start doing the submisive pee to them.

The best thing you can do for this dog is to try to build up her confidence. Avoid corrections if possible and if you do have to correct (like with the cats) make sure your correction is to a minimum. Meaning the least amount of "force" it takes to get the message through. Perhaps you don't have to yell "no", maybe if you say it directly to her in a low tone growly voice "Bingo, nooo" that will be enough and won't send her off into the slinky mode. Plus for the cat thing I would add a second behaviour. I would do something like "Bingo, nooo", then in a chearful voice "come" "good girl!" and then some sort of sit, down, shake a paw, what ever routine. I would like to follow the negative input to her with some direction and a positive.

QUOTE: My last dog urinated submisively like that too. Almost always and guaranteed when I saw him first thing in the morning after waking up, or when I came home from being out for a while. I couldn't even look directly at him or he would loose it. Even if I stopped and stood there (and he was anticipating some sort of contact from me, eye contact, petting, etc) he would loose it. So the routine was always when getting up in the am or comming into the house, do not look at the dog! Walk quickly, call his name plesantly, say hi plesantly, walk him right to the back door, open the door, and say "go potty". He would then run out, do a pee, come back in, and it was safe to greet him. He actually wouldn't show extreme submisive behaviour once he came back from his pee. END QUOTE

Really great suggestions, and the best way to help the dog outgrow it, IMO........... not to dwell on it and to stay calm and matter-of-fact and low-voiced. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Using a combination of NILIF and daily obedience training would be a confidence booster for her. And, if she's reliable on her basic commands (sit, down and come), agility is a marvelous confidence booster.

Hello,
Thank you for the advice. She was good today no wetting!

Thanks!! I thought that she hated me and thought I was a mean person. Can you tell me what age they grow out of this?