Submission peeing

[Sue Poland]

Cooper is my sweet puppy that has some issues. I am not sure what happened to him (before we brought him home) but it took him weeks to warm up to my husband and adult son who lives at home. I brought Cooper home when he was 11 weeks, he is 6 months now and when my husband, son or someone new comes in the house he cowers a bit when he goes to them and pees. I have exposed him to many situations and people to try to desesitize him, and it does not seem to get any better. He had two homes before coming to us, his forever home.
Any suggestions would be appreciated, I love all I have learned from everyone's knowledge at DK already!
Sue

[Barbara Brian]

My doodle is a female and 8 months old.  She still does this sometimes but not as much as she did.  Everyone tells me she will grow out of it!  I hope she does.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Barbara, excitement pee or submissive pee?
There is a difference. My very excitable boy still does this every so often. Just so happy he can't contain himself

[Barbara Brian]

Excitement pee I would say.  She is very submissive though, even when she meets a new little dog she rolls over in submission.  She is very friendly and loves everyone and all other dogs too!

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Have the nice men in your life stuff their pockets full of cookies. Free and flowing. The peeing may never be stopped but a positive relationship could be developed ;)
It certainly will make your puppy feel a little better each time.
Men should not force themselves on the pup- I know they want puppy love too.
No eye contact ( this type of dog takes eye contact as rude or threat) just start tossing cookies out.
Little by little increase the area of contact

[Barbara Brian]

I didn't know this about doodles and eye contact.  I am always looking at her and kissing her and telling her I love her!  Would eye contact with her owners be different than that of strangers?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Joanne didn't mean doodles when she said "this type of dog", she meant dogs who are shy or fearful.

[Barbara Brian]

Good to know!  THANKS

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Sue, have you discussed this with your vet to rule out any possibility of it being a medical issue?

[Jennifer Tramell]

I had an excited/submissive "pee-er", his was mostly excitement but he was also a compliant, submissive boy so there could have been some drops of submissive pee in his dribbling.  The problem generally arose when he was greeting people - my husband, me, the neighbor, oh alright - everyone.  My solution was to teach Cody to sit and shake hands when he would greet people.  This redirected his excitement by giving him a job, but it still allowed him to greet people.  Cody was a big boy and he would spray pant legs and shoes in his excitement.  When he learned to sit and shake, it made greetings much more pleasant and it gave him a habit he kept his whole life.  Many people were charmed when this beautiful dog would sit in front of them and give his paw. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This is a great idea. 

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I like this idea too.

[Cyndi, The Boys & Callie]

Beau did this when he was about 4 months old.  He would pee and cower when meeting new people.  When we would take him anywhere, rather than lead him on his leash, I would hold him.  People would pet him/talk to him and after a few minutes, I would sit him down.  After a few times of that, the peeing with new people stopped.  

As for the cowering, every time he walked well on the leash, sat well or whatever we praised him like he had discovered gold.  When we would pet him, we didn't pet the top of his head (that seemed to encourage the cowering) but would stroke him on his neck/under his chin thus gently forcing his head to raise. He just turned one and the cowering is still there but very slightly and only every once and a while.  I tell him to hold his head up and be proud!  I doubt he understands what being proud is but likes the inflection in my voice and it always perks him right up.    May sound like a lot but just little things that really helped him.   Good luck.