Submissive Urination

Submissive urination is a behavioral problem  that the average dog owner has probably never heard of before. Therefore if you are familiar with the term you probably have or have had a dog with this problem at some point in your life.

Over twenty years ago we had adopted a Great Dane puppy. I do not know what we were thinking at the time  because our yard was way too small to accommodate her properly. Anyway every time we came home Dana would urinate and we would shout “No No”. We thought it was a housebreaking problem since we didn’t know any better at the time. We were lucky because this behavior did not continue very long. Thankfully before she was even 6 Months old we realized our mistake in adopting her and rectified it quickly. We were lucky enough to find Dana  a nice family that owned a large farm. Obviously a farm was much more suited for a dog of her size to run full speed and play to her hearts content.

 I never really gave anymore thought to the urinating incident again until years later. In 1990 I started working at a local animal hospital and that was the first time I had heard the term submissive urination in my life. I would come to find out that it is actually a more common problem than I would have thought it was. I came to learn that Cocker Spaniels often have a problem with submissive urination.

Dogs in a pack have a very specific hierarchy. Every dog in the pack has a ranking. The dominant dog is top dog or #1 and they go down from there to the last dog at the bottom of the pack. The last or bottom dog is the most submissive dog in the pack. Each dog must display proper respect to any other dog that is considered higher up in the pack order. Once you get a dog you and your human family become part of the dogs pack as well. So you can see why a very submissive dog feels the need to show respect to everyone.

There are many ways they do this and most of it is expressed with body language. The following are just some examples of submissive acts. A submissive dog is expected to avert their eyes from the dominant dog. A hard stare would seem disrespectful or even considered a challenge. A dog may show proper submission by lowering its body, ears back tail possibly tucked under. Urinating upon greetings is another common way to show submission. Some dogs will even roll over and expose their bellies with or without urinating. Smiling is a submissive gesture. It kind of looks like your dog is showing his teeth but the lip is pulled straight up not back and there is no growling involved. This is the opposite of aggression which usually is combined with a warning growl although not always. Years ago I mistook a smiley rottweiler for being aggressive. As I said earlier when I was young I knew nothing about dog behaviors.

Unfortunately so many dog owners mistake this for a housebreaking problem. Most will think as I did that it is solely a housebreaking problem. I just thought she was so excited about our arrival home that she was unable to hold it in.

The good news is now that you know what the problem is you can start to fix the problem or at least minimize it. Start by reducing your intimidation factors. In fact you may notice that your dog show a lot more respect to some people than others. The reason for this is they may be taller. Maybe they have a very deep voice. If a person bends over a very submissive dog it could cause your dog to urinate. It may feel threatened by this position.

To start you may want to enter through the back door if you have this option. This way you can let him out so the urinating can happen outside if possible. You absolutely do not want to yell at him for this behavior. Yelling will just make him want to submit more and we don’t want anymore of that do we?

There are a few things you can do to help comfort your dog. They are all very simple things that may even seem silly. I would start with not making a fuss over the dog when I came home. Don’t even look at him just say “Hi Dog’s name” and go on in. When you do talk to your dog talk gently in a calm manner especially if you have a large booming voice. If he is urinating it is best to just ignore it for now.

Bending down in the squat position can make you seem smaller and less threatening or dominant to your dog.  So ideally they best way to greet your dog is to squat down a few feet away from your dog. Avert your eyes from his. Talk to him in a gentle way try not to talk to excitedly either. When you reach out to pet a submissive dog it is always best to pet him on his chest and not his head.

If you have visitors ask them to help out. Explain to them what you are doing and ask them if they mind helping you out. Tell your visitors to please just ignore your dog when they initially come in the door. This gives the dog a minute to relax. When things seem calm ask your tiniest visitor to squat down, avert their eyes, and say a quiet hello, pet her on the chest or accept a treat from them.

Basic obedience will often give a dog like this added confidence which may in turn reduce his urge to be so submissive. Be very careful when choosing a trainer for such a sensitive dog. Choose one who is soft spoken and only uses positive reinforcement. Better yet maybe you can train her yourself. There are many books on the subject. Just make sure they use positive reinforcement methods.

As you try these suggestions you will see what works and what does not. Hopefully you will think of some other things to try. You may want to reward her when she acts confident. You will learn as you go but reward her when she greets you and her tail is a little higher than usual. Reward her when she greets someone without urinating. It could be as simple as looking you straight in the eyes. Teaching the watch me exercise would actually be a wonderful thing to teach a dog like this. Since looking you directly in the eyes is a dominant act it should actually boost her confidence. It certainly could not hurt. I definitely do not have all the answers but I really enjoy sharing with you all in hopes that it may help keep families and dogs together.