dribbling chihuahua

Question
my female is 8 months old and she is house broken. She has not been fixed.  However, anytime someone tries to reach down to pet or pick her up or play with her, witch by the way she loves, she dribbles bad. I'm sure she doesn't even realize that she does it. Is there anything that i can do to help or stop this. I have never had a chihuahua do this before. HELP!  Linda

Answer
Hi Linda...

You don't say how long you've had this dog and I'm wondering if you've had her since she was a pup or if she was a rescue dog and I'm also wondering if she's the only dog in the family.  What you're describing sounds an awful lot like submissive urination.  The only part that maybe doesn't fit is the dribbling while you're playing with her.  However, some dogs do submissively urinate when they're excited. Here are two links which talk about submissive urination that you may find helpful:

http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/applied-ethology/behaviourproblems/suburine.htm...

http://www.perfectpaws.com/subr.html


We generally see submissive urination in timid or abused dogs.  In other words, it is often seen in dogs that lack confidence. I have a Chihuahua here that was terribly abused before I got him at the age of 8 months.  He would cower and urinate if we attempted to pet him or pick him up.  He's now 9 years old and he will still dribble when we go to pick him up at times.  He's much, much better than he use to be though.  

If after you read about submissive urination you decide that that is what your dog is presenting with, you should work on building her confidence as is described in both links.  You can also google "submissive urination" yourself and find more information and advice towards a workable solution.  However, I also think that you should take her to a reputable veterinarian and have her checked out to make sure that she doesn't have a medical problem that is causing this.  It does alarm me when you say that she "dribbles bad" and that you don't think she realizes that she does it.  Trust me, it's better to be safe and have her properly examined and evaluated.

I hope the above information is helpful to you.  Let me know if I can claify anything or be of any further help.  Best of luck to you.

Jo Ann