Your dog is house trained, he is a happy, playful companion but when you come home, visitors are coming to your house, or when he gets too excited, you’ll have a puddle on your floor. This can happen frequently to puppies but normally dogs outgrow this phase while their confidence level rises.

First and foremost, submissive or excitement urination is not a housetraining problem. Punishing or scolding your animal does not help, the opposite is true, the problem will worsen.

To resolve this problem, one needs to understand canine instinct and behavior. The dog’s brain is programmed to accept superiority of other creatures, be it towards humans or other animals. A submissive behavior shows that the dog is looking for approval of superior creatures and wants to please. Since people prefer submissive dogs to dominant, aggressive animals, more and more breeders try to breed dogs with these characteristics.

Dogs that have been abused, are shy, lack confidence, will show extremely submissive behavior to please their owners. It’s their plea to not be punished, to eagerly show their submissiveness. Many rescue animals suffer from this behavioral problem.

1.) As mentioned above, if an accident happenes don’t punish, don’t yell at the dog. Clean up after the animal without making a big fuss. If you punish, your dog will want to please you even more by being more submissive and the problem will worsen.

2.) When you come back home from work, errands, etc. make no big deal out if it. Don’t greet your animal enthusiastically, ignore him. This allows the dog to calm down. If possible, go for a walk or take him out immediately to relieve himself.

3.) Ask family members and visitors to do the same until the dog calms down.

4.) Approach the dog sideways, the least “threatening” position for the animal. Don’t stare into his eyes, rather at his nose if you talk to him. (We have mentioned before that staring at a dog’s eyes is always a sign for the animal that superiority is displayed. It should only be used in short intervals when you train your dog and when he is reluctant to follow your commands.)

5.) Never bend over when you approach your animal. Bending over is a very aggressive sign language, even more so if the animal is already insecure. Crouching down to his level makes him feel much more comfortable.

You want your animal to be confident but not aggressive. A confident dog does not show extreme submissive behavior, ergo will not resort to submissive peeing.

Be patient! Behavioral problems can only be solved with consistency and over time. The more confidence your animal gains the less frequent accidents will happen. Some animals respond very quickly, some have a deeply rooted fear (especially previously abused animals) and it takes longer for them to outgrow the problems.