Submissive or excitement

[Diane Viau]

My 4 month old samoyed husky/golden retriever (Libby) will pee when someone comes in the house or is approached on our walks, but only with certain people and animals.

If in the house she'll run up to visitors and jump on them, but will only pee if it's my father in law, certain friends (female), one of the fathers of the kids I babysit, brother in law and uncle. Everyone else she jumps up on, but doesn't pee.

Now when outside on walks, NOBODY can approach her. If they do she'll try to run the other way or hide behind me and coward down and will pee a huge puddle. It doesn't matter if they're an adult or a child. Same with dogs, however she's getting better with them. Once they're able to sniff each other she's fine, she won't pee and wants to play.

I'm guessing in the house she's excited because she's in her own environment and is comfortable and is just excited and pees, but why with only certain people??
Outside is submissive right? How do I get her out of this? She's been in puppy classes and did extremely well. We take her out of walks so she can socialize with as much people and animals as she can. We let people give her a treat when they try to approach her.

We were on a walk once and my husband met us on our way back. He went to approach her and she hid behind me, ears went back, totally scared like she didn't know who he was, until he grabbed her, started petting her and talking to her, then she realized who he was and got all excited.

Will she grow out of this or is there something else we should be doing?

Thanks
Diane

[Amber]

When people come in your house, how do they pet her? Do they pet her over her head and on her back? If so, then I've read that is submissive peeing. It is a threatening gesture to pet dog's in certain areas when you first greet them...reaching your hand over their heads and petting thier backs, bending over them, talking to them excitedly...stuff like that will make them pee. With walking outside, it sounds like you need to treat her while people are walking toward you two so she can associate good things with strangers. It just seems like she is afraid of strange people or people she cannot recognize right away. Start treating her before she sees the stranger...hopefully you see the person before she does. If not, teach her a "Look" command so that she will switch her attention immediately on you and it will calm her down. Also, how much have you socialized her? Taking her to stores with you (that allow it), through drive-thrus, etc.?

Precious is a excited peeing case. When anyone, including the people who live in our house (my mother and I), walk in the house we have to ignore her for 5 minutes so that she won't pee all over the floor. The only thing I say to her is "Sit" as soon as I come through the door so she will stop jumping and that's it for 5 minutes. Whoever it is has strict instructions not to look at, talk to, or pet Precious for the 5 minutes they are in the house. They also cannot sit on the couch or loveseat or she will pee on the furniture (and them!) After that time period, she is totally fine! She still does it when we are at Petsmart, the groomers, or the vets office (they love her there, so they start playing with her and she pees EVERYWHERE!). Luckily they find it cute...lol.

Also, For the first couple of months after I adopted Sally, she had a nervous peeing and pooping problem. It wasn't really submissive. It was every time she got really nervous, she would pee or poop, depending on the situatioin. As soon as she got comfortable in the household and with me, she stopped doing both. We haven't had an incident in about 2 or 3 months now. I don't think Precious will grow out of her submissive peeing, but I could be wrong.

It sounds like, in your case, submissive peeing inside the house (I'm going on what you said before without the extra info I asked about) and nervous peeing while on walks. If the people coming in your house are greeting your dog correctly and she is STILL peeing, then it is excited peeing. The only thing for excited peeing that I can think of is to tone down the greetings...do not greet the dog with high pitched voices, no baby talk, etc.

[Diane Viau]

When people come to the house and she's up on them, my father-in law usually pets her head/face. Everyone else is usually squatted down at her level trying to undress or dress their kids and they tend to pet her back.

On our walks they are bent over petting her head.

Again, only with certain people she'll pee. Everyone else pets her on her head or back and she doesn't pee. At the vets depending on which Dr it is, she won't pee.

If I get her to sit and hold her collar when people come to the house she won't pee, but as soon as I let her go so she can approach them she'll pee.

We take Libby everywhere we can. She goes on walks to the park, we live in a cul-de sac and there are tons of kids and families so she gets lots of socializaton outside here, plus she went to puppy classes. We just got a petsmart so i'm going to start taking her there since there are loads of people and other dogs there.
I've tried the "look" command in the house and it does grab her attention briefly. She gets excited and wants to see what's going on or what's i'm so excited about. I'll see how it works outside.

Thank you for your help

Diane

[Jay Adams]

I saw this on a dog training show up here in Toronto: Good Dog, hosted by this dude Dr. Stanley Coren, who has written a ton of books on Dog psychology.

He observed a dog with your exact description, and explained it as submissive urination, that starts in puppyhood.

When the dog is a pup, it often is scolded by its mom and then acts submissivley. This particular pooch was then learning that if he ran up and did this then people would think he's just a harmless pup and should be treated as such.

Coren started to reward the pooch for coming to a stranger and not urinating. Before this, he had the owner call him over and reward him a lot to get him used to the routine.

[Diane Viau]

Jay,

Thanks for the tip. I'll give that a try when we have visitors. I'll leave a bag of treats by the front door and start with my husband when he comes home from work as well with parents when they drop off and pick up the kids. It'll be a good way to teach her to sit instead of jumping on the guests as well.

Diane