pees when excited,....jeez!

[MMaples852]

my Winnie just gets so darned excited over new people or her mom coming home ... that she pees.. this is really tiresome for me after 3 years. whenever i come home i won't even look at her in the eyes til she goes outside to pee... all the time saying "no pee pee, no pee pee" til she gets outside then she will go. is there any answer to getting her to not pee when excited?

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MMaples852

[Rusty's mom]

Our 3 boys have the same problem with the oldest being the worst. When any of us come home we don't look at them or talk to them, just let them outside and then after they come back in it's pets and cuddles for the guys. We always tell people not to look at our boys or reach for them at all. They are to be ignored until they settle down and with people ignoring them it only takes a minute. If we have advance notice of people coming over we let our guys out for a bathroom break first. You might want to try a dog training program - that helped us an awful lot.

Kathy

[cps]

I work as a trainer and this is a common problem. It's normal for even otherwise housetrained dogs to urinate in excitement when greeting.

First, if you haven't already, take your dog to the vet just to make sure there's no medical reason for his behavior.

If the vet rules out a medical condition then the best thing to do is try to prevent your dog from becoming overly excited in the first place.

What Kathy suggested is right on the mark. Ignoring him when you first get home - don't even look or talk to him for about 10 minutes. You can, however, walk to the back door to let him go out if he needs to. Once calm, he can get some attention, but if he gets excited again, ignore him again. Cross your arms and look at the ceiling. Turn your back and walk away. Keep repeating this cycle until he "gets" it.

When people come over, have them ignore him until he calms down as well.

You can also give him something else to do rather than urinating on the floor, such as asking him to sit or fetch a toy, and reward him with a treat when he does so. You can also reward calm greetings on his part with treats.

Also, keep in mind he may at first get frustrated at all of a sudden being ignored and may seem to get more agitated. This is normal and will pass.

Even though it's difficult, ignore all excitement urination and don't scold your dog when it occurs. Just clean up the mess and keep ignoring him when you first get home.

Once he's stopped urinating when you ignore him, you can gradually try to start greeting him calmly and quietly and see if he can handle that.