#190 Submissive Urination

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Ever walked in the door to find your puppy leaving an excited puddle on the floor? That's not a house training failure—it's submissive urination, a communication behavior rooted in nervousness that affects many young dogs.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the 5-Minute Dog, the mini-podcast
that delivers practical trainingadvice in less than 5 minutes.
Submissive urination is one ofthose behaviors that can sneak
up on us.
You call your puppy over, theylook a little hesitant and then

(00:23):
they squat and urinate at yourfeet.
Or a visitor walks in and,before anyone even says hi, your
puppy has left a puddle on thekitchen floor.
So what's going on?
Submissive urination is exactlywhat it sounds like.
It's not a house training issueand it's not an act of

(00:45):
rebellion.
It's communication.
It's your puppy saying I'm nota threat, please don't be mad, I
don't know what else to do.
It's a behavior rooted innervousness or social insecurity
, not a physical need, and it'smost common in young puppies or

(01:07):
very sensitive dogs.
And common triggers include youbending over to clip a leash on
or reaching toward their heador their collar, maybe making
direct eye contact, speaking ina deep or a loud voice,
strangers approaching tooquickly or exciting greetings

(01:35):
from familiar people.
So if you tell people that yourpuppy submissive urinates, most
people will tell you that oh,don't worry, they'll outgrow it
and some will.
Some puppies will naturallygain confidence as they mature
and the behavior fades away, butothers won't, especially if
they keep being exposed to thosesame triggers without any

(01:55):
desensitization.
So rather than waiting sixmonths to see if your puppy will
outgrow it, I recommend youstart desensitization to those
triggers ASAP.
So the first thing that you haveto do is identify the triggers.
Is it when you come home fromwork and you look directly at

(02:15):
your puppy and ask about theirday?
Or is it when your friend leansdown to pet him?
Or maybe when you say his namein a certain tone?
Once you identify the triggers,the real work can begin.
So in the short term, you haveto stop triggering the behavior.

(02:36):
If direct eye contact is atrigger, watch your puppy in
your peripheral vision.
Watch your puppy in yourperipheral vision.
If loud noises or greetings arethe issue, tone it down a bit.
If leaning over your puppy toleash him up is a trigger, sit
on the floor and call him intoyour space.

(02:57):
And if visitors trigger thebehavior, be sure to explain
what they can and cannot do tokeep your puppy comfortable.
But for the long term, you haveto start desensitizing your
puppy to the triggers Because,let's be honest, we cannot avoid
making direct eye contact withour puppy for the rest of our

(03:20):
lives.
So how do you desensitize?
The short answer is to get themto associate the trigger with
treats.
So let's say direct eye contactis the issue.
I want you to make direct eyecontact for one to two seconds,
then divert your gaze as youtoss your puppy a treat and once

(03:42):
he can withstand one to twoseconds of eye contact, go for
three to four seconds Againtossing a treat at the end, and
with enough practice he'll startto think that direct eye
contact equals food and that'snothing to be afraid of.
If leaning over him is thetrigger, barely lean over him

(04:05):
and then drop a treat and keeprepeating it, leaning over a
little more each time and beforeyou know it he will assume you
are delivering food when youlean over.
But take your time withdesensitization.
Don't try to solve the issueovernight.
Don't try to solve the issueovernight.
You should see some resultswithin a week, but complete

(04:27):
desensitization could takeupward of a month, if not more.
But just remember submissiveurination is not a house
training issue, it'scommunication.
It's your puppy trying tonavigate a social situation that
they don't fully understand yetand your job is to show them

(04:48):
that it's safe, help them buildconfidence and make those scary
moments feel a little morepredictable and a lot more fun.