urinating when approached

[Guest Anonymous]

I have a 5 1/2 month old doberman puppy. We got her when she was 10 weeks old.
The problem we are having with her is if she feels threatened in any way she will stop and pee on the floor.
For example, if shes grabbed a sock and we are trying to get it from her, she knows she isnt supposed to have it and if we approach her to take it away she will lay her ears back and squat on the floor. (no, we dont hit her)
Another example might be if you raise your voice to her with a "NO" and go towards her she will stop and pee on the floor. Its very frustrating, any suggestions on how to break her of this?
When we take her outdoors she is praised highly for going outdoors and a firm no when shes done it inside and taken immediately out. She knows to let you know that she has to go out, but if she feels afraid she will do it right on the floor.
HELP its making me nuts

[courtnek]

This seems to be overly submissive dog week around here....

Start by not raising your voice when you correct her - a firm but quiet NO is enough with an overly submissive dog. Ifg you need to take something from her, use basic command training (sit, lay down, stay) and then approach her calmy and take it away - dont yell at her for having taken it in the first place.
When she gives it up willingly, then praise her, also in a clam, controlled vocie - loud rampant praising will only make her more afraid.

Build up her confidence. Dobermans are not naturally submissive...so
you have to be careful with this.

Play tug of war with her two to three times a day (I would suggest 3)
at game 2, let her win and take the tug toy. Then play with her again a few minutes later and win yourself (winning the last round is VERY IMPORTANT) and put the toy up. After a few days, with a few wins,
her confidence should improve. She is acting like pack Omega, you want to
promote her a little bit without getting a big head about it. You DONT want to promote her so much she thinks she's top dog...there is a fine line here.
You must always win the last round, and put the toy up. Dont let her take it to her bed. That causes major dominance issues with dogs.

With a few wins under her belt, and if you can keep your voices down and level, her confidence should improve and she should stop "submissive
peeing" every time you get near.

Good luck! let us kow how she gets on

[mydogroxy]

courtnek pretty much covered it, but i wanted to add that you should never reprimand your pup for submission urination. it's not something they do on purpose or can help. roxy used to do this everytime my boyfriend would come home and greet her. she still does it every once and a while, but now it's more out of excitement, than her being submissive. good luck!

[courtnek]

courtnek pretty much covered it, but i wanted to add that you should never reprimand your pup for submission urination. it's not something they do on purpose or can help. roxy used to do this everytime my boyfriend would come home and greet her. she still does it every once and a while, but now it's more out of excitement, than her being submissive. good luck!
_________________

THANK YOU MYDOGROXY - I forgot to add that. Your pup is not being "bad", it's responing to what the pack would expect of it, and in the pack, no other dog would punish it.


Let us know how she gets on. ok?

[Guest Anonymous]

Please read this article. It will give you a completely different insight. (yes it is about a JRT but it does apply to any breed)

http://www.hi-caliberbooks.com/submissiveArticle.htm

[courtnek]

GREAT article Marysmama - I was trying to do the same thing with the
tug toy, reinforcing play as a means to boost the dogs confidence, but
treats may work even better!

Thanks!

:D

they are ALL food mongers, arent they? :lol:

[Rosebud]

:D

Great advice from all and a great article.

As for the tug toy it works, Sally-Rose did not experience submissive peeing but she was definately insecure and overly submissive for an RR. I would encourage her to be more secure by playing tug with her and letting her win, I also threw a twist into it, I would cheat to get the toy, while she was holding ground pulling I would touch her belly so that she would jump and let go of the toy, when she jumped I would ignore it and continue with our tug-game by giving her the toy back, if she didn't jump I talk lovingly to her, praising her and letting her know everything's o.k. This twist was very successful for her and has helped her to gain alot of confidence in herself and her surroundings. She is also not as shy in strange situations.

:angel:

[Marble]

i know this is un-related in a way but she's not spayed is she? i know she's young but i thought i'd ask.....because my brothers doberman for the longest time would pee anywhere at the drop of a hat, probably literally. what he found out was that she was having hormone problems from being spayed and the vet put her on a hormone replacement medication and she's all better now :) if i remember correctly he said the vet said that he's seen it a fair amount in dobies.......just a thought.

[Rosebud]

:-?

Hmmmm!

Marble this isn't that far off topic, with the dobie being 5 1/2 months old it's possible she's coming into her first heat and just can't control her bladder.

I would still suspect there is a self-confidence issue that should be worked on but would also suggest you check her and see if she is in heat. Sometimes the vulva swelling will not be noticable in the first heat, sometimes there is not any really significant blood either. You can do a simple test on her to see how she reacts.

Take a thermoter and act like you are going to take her temperature, if she is overly sensitive she may be in heat, next scratch her behind beside and just below where the tail inserts, most dogs enjoy this but females in heat LOVE it and will wrap there tail around there body, then take a white tissue and wipe her pee-pee to see if there is any discoloration that could indicate the slighest bit of blood. If she passes all three or just the third she is in heat, if she passes the first two but fails the third she may be in heat and should be watched as if she is.

:angel:

[Guest Anonymous]

Thank you for the advice everyone! To answer your question, no she is not spayed and as of now I dont believe she is in heat, besides this has been going on a good few months periodically but has just gotten worse.

It would of never occured to me to do the tug of war. In the past Ive always had Rotties and none were submissive and I was always told not to play tug of war with the more aggressive breeds so Ive just done the same with her..I will certainly give your suggestions a try!

Last week we tried when she went outdoors, giving her a treat, then if she did it indoors "NO!" and taking her outside. Ive never had housebreaking issues with any dogs before so this one had me stumped, even tho I realize its not really a housebreaking issue.

Thank you again for your advice, I had visited these boards before but just read..Im a member of another non animal forum that I moderate so much of my time is spent there, but its nice to know this place is here when things like this come up. :D

[Rosebud]

:D

One word of caution. Do not pull with the toy since she is so young. Let her do all of the pulling. The reason I bring this up is because her teeth are still not yet set and you don't want to change her bite. You can pull gently but don't drag her around or let her try to drag you, keep the game of tug n war a gently one.

Good luck and we hope you visit regularly.


Actually we really want you to become addicted too.

:angel:

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks ..Ill keep that in mind!

This forum is set up alot like the one I moderate so I was going to attach her picture but didnt see where to do that, that part is a lil different than our forums..oh well, take my word for it, shes a beauty :D [/img]

[Rosebud]

:D

There is a sticky in pictures that gives the directions for posting pics. They have to be saved to a group online before you can post them.

Post pic, Post pic, Post pic :wink:


:angel: