Dog Training by Kikopup – Submissive Urination when Greeting People
This video covers how to train and prevent your puppy or adult dog from urinating when greeting a family member, friend or stranger. Some puppies will grow out of this behavior, but for others the behavior can continue into adulthood.
The most important concept to remember is to try and keep your cool if your dog does urinate even though it can feel frustrating and embarrassing especially if the dog pees on the guest’s shoe, something expensive or hard to clean. The problem with acting frustrated or angry is that it will make the dog more likely to submissively pee when greeting you the next time as greeting predicts the person getting angry.
The first plan of action is preventing the behavior from happening by “changing the picture”. All dogs are different and have different stimuli trigger them to urinate. For some dogs it’s even simply the sight of their owner coming through the door after work.
Here is a list of things that can trigger submissive urination:
• The dog has not seen the person for a long time
• A direct approach
• Direct eye contact
• Standing directly in front of the dog
• Leaning over the dog
• Touching the dog – calmly, excitedly or playfully
• Talking to the dog – normally, in a high pitched voice or loud
What you can do instead:
• Wait until the dog has had time to calm down before interacting
• Let the dog approach you rather than approaching the dog
• Avoid a direct approach by walking in an arc toward the dog if you approach
• Avoid direct eye contact and blink at the dog if you do look at the dog
• Stand facing to the side when near the dog
• Don’t lean over, pet or talk to the dog until the dog has had enough time to calm down.
• Pet the dog with the dog at your side rather than directly in front of you.
• Move calmly and slowly.
• Immediately stop interacting with the dog and walk away if you see the dog start to lower their hips, squat or roll over.
Submissive urination is usually more likely to happen during the initial meeting after not seeing the person for a long time or meeting a new person. What you can do is change the dog’s expectation of what will happen during the initial meeting. Instead of what typically happens, an immediate social interaction upon seeing the person, you can make the initial appearance of the person predict something else, for example, being fed, working for treats or getting to go out to go to the bathroom.
With family members
When arriving home, you can change your dog’s motivation by dropping treats on the floor or giving the dog a high value chew. You can also make the initial meeting about going outside to go to the bathroom. Instead of saying “HI!!! FLUFFY!!!” You can open the door and in a casual voice say, “Do you need to go out?” and without looking at your dog walk around your yard looking interested in the bushes or places in the grass. If your dog jumps on you, you can also do this but sprinkle treats in the grass to point out to your dog to get your dog interested in sniffing around.
After your dog has calmed down, say 10 mins after you get home, you can then give your dog the excited attention you wanted to when first seeing your dog. This works great for family members who get over-excited by their dogs, as it gives them also a chance to calm down before interacting with the dog.
With guests
Have your dog on a leash and harness or in a pen and let your dog calm down first before getting to greet the person. You can give your dog treats for settling on his dog bed.
Instead of jumping right into petting, have the guests feed your dog a treat to change the dog’s motivation from greeting to expecting food. You could also get the person to ask your dog for his favorite behaviors or tricks. After each behavior the dog can receive a treat from the person.
You can teach your dog to touch the person’s hand or rest chin in the person’s hand as a behavior so the dog is touching the person at first rather than the person touching the dog.
Ask the guest to stop petting your dog and move away from your dog if you see your dog start to lower his hips, squat or begin to roll over.
Teach the touch cue- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWSJVwZybwo
Teach the chinrest- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2lnaerPR5o
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When I got my new dog, she was a 2 month old rescue and any high pitched voice would get her so excited she would immediately pee but I kept on working to socialize her. She recently turned 1 and thankfully she has outgrown it.
Thank goodness. It can be frustrating when other people think it is funny.
@Dog Training by Kikopup It’s just something to deal with and I’m glad I did. She is a great hound.
Thanks! That is so helpful, our labmix, that we got from the shelter two years ago does this a lot (also when we pick him up for baths or to put him in the car, especially after his hip surgery). We managed to make him stop by ignoring him or tell him to go to his cushion and wait (and calm down) while we take out coats off.
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Yes I have one of these, training is definitely helping. Will take some time especially since she has not feeling well. Blinking and yawning is good to calm your dog, I watch them do that as well as shake it off. Keep sharing.
Thank you! I had neighbors that had a sweet little dog that always did this. To make matters worse, she would get close to the floor and wag her tail while urinating, her tail touching the floor and splashing/slinging ‘it’ around. This neighbors moved and the ‘ex’ took the dog. I suggested your channel to them so many times. They would wrestle their huge Rottie, but not take the time to even teach him basic commands like sit or stay. Some people ought not own dogs. THANK YOU so much for helping those that want to learn. <3 <3 <3 I sincerely appreciate all you do and share.
Yeah dogs with hairy tails…. even worse as you can imagine.
Yes! The sweet girl had a hairy tail.
This video is amazing! I am so happy you made this! Thank you so much. I don’t have a puppy that does this anymore but your helping me realize how dogs are sentient creatures just like you or me. Thank you thank you thank you.
My girlfriend has had her dog three years and he suffered a lot of abuse prior to that. Initially when I moved in with my girlfriend the dog was fine and there were not issues. However, since I have been living with her a few month he has suddenly started to submissively urinate when I come in from work or being out. A lot of these steps have helped, and although it’s difficult I find ignoring him until he approaches me the best method. Then he is usually back to his playful self and there are no issues. Sometimes though, especially when I’ve just come in, he will run up to me, or follow me around and then urinate if I try to get passed him (We have a small house so when he pens me in the kitchen its unavoidable). I don’t know what to do, but I think it’s just a case of trying my best to manage it. He’s 12 now and I feel he may be getting more anxiety with age related to his past abuse.
I suggest having a bag of treats in your car, then when you enter the house toss treats for him as you come in. You can also get the girlfriend to call him away so you can pass. Or walk to the fridge, get some treats drop them, then leave. I know its hard and frustrating. Also if the girlfriend can have the dog go out and pee before you come home it will help. For some dogs it can be worse if they have a full bladder.
Too bad my puppy does that with anybody anywhere …so i have to train the whole world how to greet my puppy 😂
Honestly it is a good lesson for others to learn. They want to pet the dog for their own interests and have no concern about how it makes the dog feel. So kindly helping people understand that their actions affect the other, and that by modifying their own behavior, they can have the social interaction that the dog also enjoys too. Trying to get people to not objectify your puppy is difficult. Sometimes saying no to people, they take offense. Basically when the dog is calm and confident the dog wont pee anymore with the greetings. It takes time with some dogs.
It is difficult to make guests understand I’m not frustrated with them or the dog but my dog is so aware of herself that she thou wants to greet them runs downstairs and proceeds to come back up after a few minutes… but this makes me feel like I’m failing her she is an off the leash dog chases nothing but her frisbee walks behind protects if told too shes amazing I’ve never been we with a dog like this so I want the best for her even more so
I have a young chihuahua cross and was shocked that like 6 foot+ tall guys would just bend right over a small dog and start rubbing their head. Now she nips at fingers when any get too near her face.
I bought some velcro “Do Not Pet” patches and put them on her harness. It seems to be working so far, far fewer people touching her.
Exactly what I was looking for, my pup is 5 months now but it just seems to get worse, even if I play with him he piddled on the sofa I take him out and he pees really well.
It does tend to get better when they hit adulthood. I have to say its been years since my girl in the video has had the problem with excitement peeing.
Watching this makes me appreciate knowing how to train my dogs to respond like that…without depending on a crutch.
I went thru all of this before even seeing this.
She is totally correct. Dont get emotional when your dog pees. Already happened, clean up and move on.
I always had a towel and bag in my pocket, just in case.
Great vid.
I have two puppies, though not technically puppies being about a year old, they still have all the puppy mannerisms. Even approaching them indirectly they pee out of fear. They are super submissive. As well as teaching guest how to approach them, I would like to know how to teach them to control their urination when scared. They have never been abused in any way, but screech when they are in the slightest bit of trouble. I’d like them to understand they are not in any danger with us, even when in trouble. And especially how to teach them to not be scared when we approach them in happy fashion. Any suggestions?
I tried the minimal eye contact, petting from the side and bending down to the dog’s level and it worked almost instantly!!!!
The submissive pee would happen the worse in her crate when I go to take her out. So, now I slowly walk up to her crate and just sit down next to it for about 30 seconds. Then I unzip the front and wait about another 10 seconds and let her come out on her own. Once she does that, I pick her up while still sitting from the side and NO PEE AT ALL!
Last thing, I use the minimal eye contact when taking her out to use the bathroom. I put her in the grass and turn around and she goes to pee or do #2 almost instantly.
The only thing now is my 3-month old maltipoo is very irritated because she sensed right away that I am ignoring her a bit by not making eye contact. She keeps barking like crazy now and pacing to get my attention Lol!
Oh thats awesome! One thing you can also do in regards to the crate is put treats down and open the door of the crate and let the puppy come out for the treats. The submissive peeing will happen the most when you have been away and return most likely so if you wanted to work on eye contact, you could do it after youve been hanging out for a while. I have a new video on eye contact starring my little chihuahua puppy Epic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e_gVqJkdek
Our cockapoo, 3 months old does this when we greet her in the morning. She is left downstairs the whole night. Then when we come back from the shops or even just upstairs for a short while she pees when we walk in. To help with the pee, I go around the back each morning and let her out the utility room door from the outside, where she sleeps. That way the pee is outside when I greet her in the morning rather than in the kitchen.
So basically there’s nothing we can do besides not acting excited when seeing them, approach the dog the right way, and basically fingers crossed that eventually they grow out of it.
“Both paws!” So freaking adorable I tell ya
What are your tips for dealing with dogs that sit submissively or lay down, roll over when shown attention? I struggle with this a lot, mostly with adult dogs that weren’t raised with much training. The one I just got always sits or lays down, and then will pee too, so as far as your recommendation to walk away if they start to squat-she’s already beyond a squat so it’s kinda late. I already notice that her tail will move to behind her, in a pee position, so I have been moving away as soon as she does that.
These tips are SUPER helpful, but to be honest: I just wanted to hug and cuddle the puppers!!!! They’re incredibly well behaved!
New video idea: I have a new dog 1.5 years old, who ONLY submission urinates. Meaning she won’t squat in the yard and relieve herself. She’s getting much better at NOT submission peeing, (using tips from you video) so now she urinates while she sleeping because she never empties her bladder fully when in the yard. I can force her to pee some by standing and bending over the top of her, as you show in this video, but that is the behavior I’m trying to stop. I feel like I’m sending mixed messages! Help!
Thanks for posting this video! I grew up around cats and noticed that dogs pee anytime they meet me. Your video gave me great pointers on changing my own behaviors to better accommodate the dog.
My dog pee’s when I put on her leash, touch her crate latches, when I pet her, when i go to walk her, when I go to feed her, basically anytime I am near her. It’s not just me either, she will do it with my wife and kids also. Very annoying to say the least. lol