Submissive Urination

I was looking for a topic about 'submissive urination' here on the forum but couldn't find anything specific, so I thought it may be useful to start a new topic.

I had a look at various websites explaining this issue, because apparently our Mambo is the best example of overexcited and super submissive peeing dog! I found quite a few interesting and helpful tips and advices - we're using some of them already and they really work!

Most important (and surprising!)to me was the reason why dogs actually do that! That also made me feel quite bad when I realised I probably told Mambo off few times before after he did what he did...

Here are some interesting quotes off the web that I found most interesting and helpful in our case (for the adult dog):

Submissive urination is simply your dog's instinctive reaction to a situation where they believe a human or other animal (usually another more dominant dog) in their presence is superior to them.
Submissive urination is something your dog does when feeling intimidated or threatened to show respect, acknowledge superiority or avoid confrontation. It is an instinctive, subconscious act which is rarely deliberate and is not done to spite you. In many cases the dog is even unaware that he/she is doing it.

In older dogs submissive urination can be a symptom of being shy, lacking self esteem, fear, insecurity, over sensitivity, confusion and nervousness. This can be attributed to a variety of factors including a frightful incident in the past, lack of puppy socialization and training, a very strict or dominant owner, abuse, mistreatment or a lack of other social skills.
A dog who is inappropriately punished will not understand what the punishment was for. This will lead to anxiety and confusion which, in turn can trigger submissive urination. Your dog may offer it instinctively to avoid a punishment which in their nervous and confused mind could come at any time.

There are plenty of things you can do to treat submissive urination in dogs. Most of these measures revolve around boosting the confidence levels in your dog and also teaching an alternate behavior for your dog to perform in situations where they would normally urinate. In your dog's mind he/she is already submitting, being non confrontational and showing respect to you (or something else). So adding punishment to this scenario will only compound the problem and make the urinating behavior more common.
If you smother your dog with sympathy or cuddle up to them each time they have an "accident" you are actually rewarding the behavior and therefore reinforcing it (making it occur more often). It's important to simply ignore the submissive urination when it happens and practice some of the treatments suggested below.
Socialize your puppy or older dog to the environment around him/her. Get him familiar and comfortable with all types of people, dogs and other animals. This is a great way to build awareness and confidence in an overly submissive dog.
Obedience training is a brilliant way to improve the two way communication between yourself and your dog. Instead of your dog urinating when you arrive home from work you will be able to request an alternate behavior of your dog. You could put him in a down-stay or get him to sit and shake your hand. This will redirect his energy and give him an appropriate outlet for him to show you respect. Obedience training is also a great confidence builder, plus it helps to build a strong bond between human and dog.
If your dog pees when you return home you can also try ignoring him. Take the excitement out of returning home, ignore him, take him straight outside and don't look at him or talk to him. Just go about your business until he has quietened down and you are ready to initiate contact with him in a calm and controlled manner.


what seems quite difficult to me here is finding the right balance between treating your dog 'equally enough' and showing him that although he doesn't have to be so submissive, he still has to respect who's the leader.

we still have a lot to do, Mambo is now OK with greetings when he's ignored (we used to have big problem with this, mornings were particularly bad) but he still has accidents when we're playing with him, especially when using his favorite toys. But he's getting better, so fingers crossed!

hope this will help those having similar problems

Great post. Not something I have encountered myself but great for people that have or are Xx

Very interesting post, I'm sure it'll help others along the line.

great reading