Submissive urination??

[Westerly]

My male rottie is nearly 9 mos old; I've had him since he was about 4 1/2 mos old. He came to us as a sweet but timid and sometimes fearful boy...I've responded to this with LOT's of socialization...meeting strangers, visiting busy places, obedience classes, etc. He's come a long way...he's for the most part friendly and happy to make new friends, and noisy active places aren't a problem anymore. However, he still urinates when he is petted/fussed over by people outside our household. I've just ignored this, figuring he'll eventually grow out of this. Well he hasn't yet :>( and as he gets bigger so does the volume, yikes. I would love to hear your thoughts on this situation, any suggestions as to what I should do differently?

[RottnKid1]

It sounds like you've come a long way with your pup. Great job! As for the problem, ask the people to ignore him for a minute and then go about greeting him very matter of factly and more from a sideways position so they're not facing him head on.

[mightyrebel]

Westerly, I'm not sure I understand? Do you get the impression that he's urinating when meeting these folks from 'excitement', or 'fear/anxiety', as a form of extreme submission? If it's just the 'butt-wiggling, I'm an excitable boy, and still spritz-my-urine everywhere-like-I'm-trying-to-write-my-name-with-it type thing, that some dogs do from sheer excitement...well, that I imagine you could still hope to see him grow out of. I can't recall if my, or any of my close friend's dog's, were still doing that at 9 months...but real close. Hell, maybe they WERE still doing it at nine? I really can't recall exactly. Nonetheless, it went on for quite some time, then stopped on it's own with all of them. (My Rott pup now STILL does it at 4 1/2 months, but he doesn't even HAVE to be excited...he just dribbles and spritzes everywhere.) But...if it's more like the 'flattening themselves down to the ground and peeing all over themself in extreme submission' type of urination...then I don't know that that's something a dog will GROW out of, unless he just develops enough confidence with the passing years to stop feeling that it's necessary, all on his own, which isn't likely. If it's a fear/submission response...then the dog apparently feels a great need to TOTALLY ingratiate itself with all new entities to AVOID ANY POSSIBLE confrontation, etc., usually as a result of just a VERY submissive type personality, some type of horrific mistreatment when younger, or very bad breeding. The last can't be helped, I don't guess. The personality type would be very odd indeed for a Rott, and I imagine would take some serious behaviorist's help to get a handle on. If it's due to earlier mistreatment, then of course it's just going to take a great deal of continued positive socialization over a great deal of time, I'd imagine. Like I said, if it's fear/anxiety-based...that's SO unusal for this breed that it would likely be sign of more serious problems than it would be in some other breeds. (It would take a LOT to make a normal healthy Rott get THAT submissive.)I mean, don't misunderstand...I don't mean to imply there is something terribly wrong with your dog, etc....it's just that if it is 'fear/anxiety' based, then he's getting old enough now that I'd expect to see some improvement in him, unless it's a sign of a more serious behavior problem. For a pup, this wouldn't be that odd...but at nine months he should be developing enough confidence that he shouldn't feel he has to ingratiate himself to that degree with everyone he meets. (As I'm sure you're aware, in the dog world, that's a very extreme form of submission...to urinate on yourself as a show of complete deference to others.) Am I misunderstanding your question? Sincerely, MightyRebel :) ;)