Puppy pees as soon as we enter the puppy traing class

[Google Doodle]

Anyone else seen this with their doodle puppy? Google is 14 weeks old and we started his puppy training classes last week. He is pretty much housebroken at this point at home, but as soon as we entered the training class he had an accident last week. We chalked it up to be a fluke accident, but then he did the same thing this week as well. We did take him for a walk outside the class right before we entered too. I am wondering if anyone has any similar experience and ideas about what would help.

 

 

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

We've all been there. It could be excitement, marking, who knows!!! But it's ok!! Our puppy class had the spray bottle and paper towels just for those situations. Remember, Google is ONLY 14 weeks!!!

[Cindy Herrod]

Our puppy still does this at 1 1/2 years. It is called submissive peeing and they do it when they are nervous or excite around people they don't know. I understands that it eventually goes away although our dog still does it, but only around certain people. We have tried to stop this by having the people not acknowledge her when they first come over and this has worked as after this initial contact and excitement, she is fine around them.

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

Cindy, my golden retreiver did the submissive pee thing (yes, only with certain people) until she grew out of it at around 2.

[Sandra Griffith]

There are a number of reasons that this could be happening. First, remember that dogs do not generalize all that well. What this means is that just because Google knows that he should not go to the bathroom inside his house does not mean that he has generalized this to mean that he should not go to the bathroom anywhere else indoors. In order to help dogs generalize you have to train behaviours (including housebreaking) in as many different locations as possible. The second cause could be submissive urination as mentioned by Cindy and Carla. Dogs do this when nervous (this might be around other dogs, locations, or strange people) as a way of letting others know that they are feeling nervous and have no intention of trying to take over a situation (it's sort of a "I give up and I'm uncomfortable sort of thing). A third reason is just pure excitement as Carla mentioned. They just get so excited at all of the new things and smells going on that they lose control. A fourth reason could be that the smells of other dogs having urinated in the area are telling Google that this is a "pee" location (the same reason it's so important to erase all traces of uring odor at our homes so that our dogs do not mistake a certain indoor area as "a good spot"). Another reason is of course that they actually have to go. Sometimes a sometimes a puppy is too distracted to go even though they have been given the opportunity to do so when they arrive at a new place but eventually the need to go takes over once they get inside. The last reason that I'll mention is one of marking their territory to let other dogs know that this area is theirs. This is less common with a 14 week old puppy. Reading your puppy's body language and keeping track of the pattern of behaviour will help to determine the most likely cause so that you can procceed from there.

Having said all of this, it is extremely common for puppies to have accidents in class. I've never taught a puppy class where this didn't happen on a regular basis. They are still such babies at this stage so I wouldn't worry about it.

[Google Doodle]

Thanks Cindy Carla and Sandra. This is our first puppy, so i am much like a nervous mom - probably overthinking everything.

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

We ALL did this at one time or another.......that's DK is here....SUPPORT!!!!!
Heck, with the new puppy we'll be getting in Nov, I'll probably be the same way, again:)