Submissive Weeing.

Question
Hi.I wonder if you can help me.I have just acquired a German Shepherd x Terrier.He is six months of age and has a problem with what I think might well be submissive weeing.He has an issue with males,we think he might well of been cruelly treated by a male in his past.I have had a few males visit my property and he does not show any of this behaviour but when my partner visits he wees on the floor when he enters the house.I have been given advice by other people and I know that my partner should ignore him and shouldn't approach him as this is an invasion of my dogs space etc.I was wondering if you could offer me any advice in how I might get this behaviour out of him at all.I have researched submissive weeing on the internet and from what I have read it appears that the dog can actually grow out of it.Is this the case.Also when we rescued him we were told he was fine with other dogs.Long story short we took him to the vets today and there was another dog in the waiting room.He immediately barked at him and kind of lunged on his lead as if he wanted to get to him. This action did not appear as one dog wanting to be friendly towards another.I had to ask the owner of that dog if she wouldnt mind removing him from the waiting room so as I could take my dog out.Any advice you can give me on this issue would be appreciated also.Many thanks,Trudy.

Answer
Hi, Trudy,


Submissive urination is a dog's ultimate way of saying, "I'm no threat to you, please don't hurt me."  

If you suspect your dog was mistreated by men in the past, this would certainly explain his behavior toward your partner.

The problem with submissive urination is the bigger deal we make of it, the bigger problem it becomes.  The less stressed you are about this issue, the less stress your dog will pick up from you and he will in turn become less stressed and more secure.

It will take time and patience on your end.

http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/submissive-uri.pdf  http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/SubmissiveUrination.pdf

Again, since you don't know your dog's background, you don't know what kind of experiences he's had with other dogs, regardless of what the shelter told you.

http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/DifficultDog.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/PreventingAggression.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/CanineConfrontations.pdf