excitement

by c hettrick
(pennsylvania)

i have a five month old male puppy that will pee when somebody comes to the house.

He pees on furniture and feet because he gets excited. Is there some way to prevent this or will this behavior stop when he gets neutered?


Hi
What your puppy is experiencing is called submissive urination, and is fairly common. Usually puppies who are a little timid or not very self-confident have this behavior issue.

It does tend to improve with age and as your puppy gains more experience and confidence in the world around him.

This is an instinctive reaction, and is your puppy's way of showing you that he knows you are superior to him and it's basically a way of showing respect. Of course, it's not very appropriate in the human world, but he can't help it.

The best thing to do is to ignore this behavior as much as possible. If you get frustrated, angry or upset about it, he will try even harder to show you that he respects you - that generally results in more pee-ing!

Try to keep greetings and petting low key, less excitement means less urination. Also, it sometimes helps to crouch down to the puppy's level as that seems less threatening to him.

Generally neutering doesn't have much effect on submissive urination, but giving your puppy plenty of socialization, joining a puppy training-class will help build his confidence and a self-confident puppy will have less trouble with this behavior.

Best of luck!