Submissive Urination - Rat Terrier

Question
We have a 2 year old rat terrior.  He lived on a farm with a female rat terrior, kids, and farm animals.  We took him because he started to kill turkeys.  We have a 9yr old rat terrior and 2 yr old rottwieler.  We have a 3 yr old and 6 yr old kids.  He was marking in the house, we crated him more, then had him neutered.  I do not catch him doing it now.  When we send him outside he hardlly sniffs.  I try to praise him verbally and with petting when he pees.  He is timid when I call to pet him and when I do pet him he often pees.  Not just a little, but alot.  I put him outside often, but it seems he is holding his bladder.  Any suggestions to reduce urination and having him come to me so that I can pet him.

Answer
As I always suggest, start with a veterinarian checking out the dog to make certain you have a clean bill of health. Once you have that, training and conditioning him will be your best bet.

Submissive urination may be due to the dog thinking he needs to constantly appease you and / or apologize.

When your dog submissively urinates, it is best to just ignore him. If you try to reassure him, he may feel you are praising him for urinating which can cause him to urinate even more. If you scold him, he will probably feel like he needs to apologize even more and that too will cause more urination. Both reassurance or scolding are likely to make the submissive urination problem worse.

The biggest key to successful treatment of submissive urination comes from building your dog's confidence and teaching him better ways to interact with you and demonstrate respect. The quickest way to accomplish this is by teaching your dog a few basic obedience exercises.  

I would suggest contacting a local training center or private trainer to assist you with getting this dog acclimated and trained. It will make everyone happier.

Good Luck!

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