Your dog will outgrow the urge to submissively urinate as they grow older. Training dogs when theyâre young can help them learn more quickly.
Dogs typically cower or lower their bodies when they feel the urge to urinate submissively. They might also:
Raise their front paws
Tuck in their tails
Flatten their ears back
Lick
If you catch your dog acting this way, redirect their attention immediately. Hereâs what you can do:
Take your dog outside to help them make a connection with this being the place to pee.
If youâre returning home, give your dog a treat to distract them and give them something productive to do with their excited energy.
Keep your greetings modest and calm so your dog doesnât interpret them as acts of dominance.
Teach your dog to âsitâ or âshakeâ when they greet new people, and reward them for it.
When youâre training your dog to stop submissively urinating, your commands should be positive, consistent, and encouraging.
Donât scowl or frown at your dog. This negative response might scare or confuse your dog, which can make the behavior worse.Â
Donât make angry or frustrated comments. Doing so might also scare or confuse your dog, which can make them continue peeing in submission. Dogs respond well to positive reinforcement.
Donât avoid interacting with your dog during submissive urination episodes. If you simply walk away, your dog wonât understand your response to this behavior. Instead, try to redirect their attention and build their confidence using commands they do know.
If you think you need help teaching your dog to stop this unwanted behavior, consider contacting a dog trainer who can help you learn more about submissive urination.Â
Submissive Urination as a Behavioral Issue
Puppies and young dogs are most likely to inappropriately urinate because they havenât learned to control the urge to pee. These dogs are acting instinctively, which makes this a behavioral issue and not a medical one. A few factors can contribute to this:
Age. If your dog is younger than 12 weeks, theyâre more likely to urinate in submission, to show they know theyâre not the leader. Puppies often grow out of this. Puppies also simply may not have the ability to control their urine yet. Through housetraining, theyâll learn the signs of needing to pee and can improve their ability to hold it.Â
Incomplete housetraining. If you adopt a dog thatâs older than 12 weeks, they may simply not be trained properly. This includes not knowing when and where itâs acceptable to urinate. Adopted dogs may not always understand the rules in their new home, which can lead to submissive urination out of insecurity.
Fear from past bad experiences. Some dogs have a history of being punished inappropriately, and theyâre attempting to show they recognize you as the leader to avoid punishment.
Separation anxiety. Your dog misses you when youâre away. If they think youâre going to leave soon, they may pass urine out of emotional distress at being left. When you come back, your dog may pee out of excitement, which is different from submissive urination but is also related to their insecurity when you leave.Â
One closely related but different behavioral issue to watch out for is urine marking. Many dogs pass urine as a way of marking territory and attempting to express dominance, which is the opposite of submissive urination. This tells other dogs that the person or property âbelongsâ to them.
Because instinct triggers urinating as a physical response, training your dog can make a difference.
Signs of Excited Peeing in Dogs
Dogs peeing when excited won’t necessarily squat or lift their leg like usual. They often pee while walking, standing, or even bouncing up and down. You can tell that your dog is excited if they are holding their tail higher than normal, wagging their entire body and tail side to side, holding their head up, or whining and/or barking.
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