#190 Submissive Urination

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.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Submissive Urination
• 1:08 Identifying Common Triggers
• 2:30 Desensitization Techniques
• 4:15 Patience and Understanding

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the 5-Minute Dog, the mini-podcast that delivers practical training advice in less than 5 minutes. Submissive urination is one of those behaviors that can sneak up on us. You call your puppy over, they look a little hesitant and then they squat and urinate at your feet. Or a visitor walks in and, before anyone even says hi, your puppy has left a puddle on the kitchen floor. So what's going on? Submissive urination is exactly what it sounds like. It's not a house training issue and it's not an act of rebellion. It's communication. It's your puppy saying I'm not a threat, please don't be mad, I don't know what else to do. It's a behavior rooted in nervousness or social insecurity, not a physical need, and it's most common in young puppies or very sensitive dogs. And common triggers include you bending over to clip a leash on or reaching toward their head or their collar, maybe making direct eye contact, speaking in a deep or a loud voice, strangers approaching too quickly or exciting greetings from familiar people. So if you tell people that your puppy submissive urinates, most people will tell you that oh, don't worry, they'll outgrow it and some will. Some puppies will naturally gain confidence as they mature and the behavior fades away, but others won't, especially if they keep being exposed to those same triggers without any desensitization. So rather than waiting six months to see if your puppy will outgrow it, I recommend you start desensitization to those triggers ASAP.

Speaker 1: 2:08

So the first thing that you have to do is identify the triggers. Is it when you come home from work and you look directly at your puppy and ask about their day? Or is it when your friend leans down to pet him? Or maybe when you say his name in a certain tone? Once you identify the triggers, the real work can begin. So in the short term, you have to stop triggering the behavior. If direct eye contact is a trigger, watch your puppy in your peripheral vision. Watch your puppy in your peripheral vision. If loud noises or greetings are the issue, tone it down a bit. If leaning over your puppy to leash him up is a trigger, sit on the floor and call him into your space. And if visitors trigger the behavior, be sure to explain what they can and cannot do to keep your puppy comfortable. But for the long term, you have to start desensitizing your puppy to the triggers Because, let's be honest, we cannot avoid making direct eye contact with our puppy for the rest of our lives.

Speaker 1: 3:22

So how do you desensitize? The short answer is to get them to associate the trigger with treats. So let's say direct eye contact is the issue. I want you to make direct eye contact for one to two seconds, then divert your gaze as you toss your puppy a treat and once he can withstand one to two seconds of eye contact, go for three to four seconds Again tossing a treat at the end, and with enough practice he'll start to think that direct eye contact equals food and that's nothing to be afraid of.

Speaker 1: 4:01

If leaning over him is the trigger, barely lean over him and then drop a treat and keep repeating it, leaning over a little more each time and before you know it he will assume you are delivering food when you lean over. But take your time with desensitization. Don't try to solve the issue overnight. Don't try to solve the issue overnight. You should see some results within a week, but complete desensitization could take upward of a month, if not more. But just remember submissive urination is not a house training issue, it's communication. It's your puppy trying to navigate a social situation that they don't fully understand yet and your job is to show them that it's safe, help them build confidence and make those scary moments feel a little more predictable and a lot more fun.