Peeing on people's feet.

[lengel]

Zooey is 12 1/2 weeks now. We got her from the woman who owns the training facility which we use. I take Zo with me when the other dogs have class so she has been back to her first home 10 times or so since we got her.

Every single time she greets her first human mom, Zo pees on the woman's feet. Then last night at puppy kindergarten, the woman's daughter was there and Zo peed on her feet as well. They both act as if this happens all of the time but Zo doesn't do this with us.

I'm confused. At first I thought it was happening because of her vaginitis but she's way past that now. Is it submissive peeing? I've only ever encountered submissive peeing in abused or neglected foster dogs and Zooey is far from that. She's smart, happy and extremely social (she greets every single persona and dog in her class every time). Is she having flashbacks to early puppyhood? Is she going to do this into adulthood? Any ideas?

[brunie's mom]

It sounds more like excitement peeing rather than submissive urination. My Baxter would do this only when our adult son came to visit. He LOVED him so...and would get so excited to see him...that he dribbled a bit of pee.

He did grow out of it.....but when our son comes home....we make Baxter greet him outside....just in case. He never did it for anyone or anything else...just for him.

Gina

[Nishasmom]

This is normal; my trainer said it is still know as "submissive urination", but I don't think its a "submissive" behavior....they just can't hold it when they get excited

[poohbearsmom]

Generally it is a submissive behavior; we can assume this as long as her vaginitis is indeed under control.

Rather than let people approach and fawn all over her (which is likely opening the flood gates), have people ignore her and let her approach them. They can hold pieces of treats and let Zoey come to them and take them from their hands. i.e. people are Pez dispensers.

This will help Zoey gain confidence. In addition, do not allow people to lean OVER her or pet the top of her head, but rather they should allow her to do the greeting and they should be rather happy, but not in the pup's face. They should ALWAYS pet the pup from underneath the chin.

See if this helps.

Some dogs are softer in nature than others, and it's our responsibility to encourage confidence in our pups. What she learns now, she will use later. Submissiveness, just like dominance is not a black and white thing. Learn your puppy's body language.

That your trainer has not addressed this properly concerns me a bit.

[lengel]

I agree. I needed this woman's help. We addressed it today. I'm pretty sure that she was having a hard time letting go. At one point she jokingly referred to Zooey as "my puppy". Anyway, Zooey went to greet her, piddled, then she turned away. All good. I said "You know what, it's just you!" and laughed. She said, "I know." Then I took Zo outside. We'll keep at it. Thanks for everyone's feedback.