# Excited/Nervous Peeing



## aprofetto

Hello Everyone,
Our puppy Zoe is really a great dog. She is potty trained, and listens (for the most part) to commands. She has a very mild temperament and is a joy to have. There is just one small problem.

She is about 5 months now, and whenever she gets excited when people come over or we go over somewhere and someone says hi to her, its game over, she pee's uncontrollably, even if we've just taken her out to pee.

Whenever we go to Petsmart, I go right to the cleaning stations and grab a ton of paper towels, because the second anyone bends down to say hi to her, she pee's. It's starting to get a bit embarrassing to be honest. 

Adding to this excited peeing, lately she has developed this, for lack of a better word, 'nervous' peeing. When my wife or I call Zoe over, sometimes she will walk slowly with her head down and her big puppy eyes looking up at us and once she gets close to us, she will pee.

For example, I'll get out a treat and say 'Zoe, come get it!' in an excited voice, she will look over, go into her 'nervous' walk as though she's done something wrong and walk over to me and pee. She does this with treats, petting, pretty much anything where you call her over.

Other than this, she goes to the door whenever she needs to go to the bathroom and we let her out as usual.

I've yelled at her a few times when she's done something wrong, like when I caught her digging a hole to the other side of the world in our backyard, but it's never been excessive yelling to the point I think I scared her.

Lately it seems as though she is scared of my wife and I? Have I been doing something wrong? I try to give her treats often to sort of bribe her into liking me again, and I try to play with her, but sometimes she just walks away as though she doesn't want to play.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. She seems to be teething now so I wonder if its just a phase she may be going through.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer!


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## PaddyD

Try to remain calm when this happens. She will probably outgrow it very soon.


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## Elaine

You have a very soft dog that is a submissive/excited peer. She absolutely can not help it. You need to keep her from reaching her peeing threshold by ignoring her until she calms down and being very careful in your corrections to her. If you do have to correct her, make very sure to praise her a lot to bring her back up right after you correct her. When you know she's going to get excited, like when you come home or someone comes over, make sure she's outside where her peeing won't matter.

They rarely grow out of this completely, but with age and careful management, she can get a lot better.


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## sportsman1539

my 13 week old pup does this... but she doesnt do it with me. She does it with other people when they first see her. I try to tell people to not get too excited with her when they first greet her and she usually doesnt do it then. Your case seems to be a little more extreme though.


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## kidkhmer

I posted exactly the same thread a while back. karma does it out of submission. It tends to happen mostly ( but not THAT often ) when she has grabbed one of my kids teddy's and I have asked her to bring it back / leave it and she has ignored me. I then lower my voice and she comes waddling in " oh god I am in trouble now " and pees as she hands over the toy. I have never hit her or really even scolded her heavily so why she feels this way is beyond me ! I assume she will grow out of it.


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## Elaine

kidkhmer said:


> I have never hit her or really even scolded her heavily so why she feels this way is beyond me ! I assume she will grow out of it.


She does this because she's beyond submissive so she pees. It has nothing to do with whether you have ever hit her or not. From her point of view, even an angry look from you can feel like a beating. No, they don't generally grow out of it completely. Some don't get better at all and some, with careful management, can improve a lot.


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## ValleyGirl

Greta is 6 months. She did the submissive peeing when greeting new people but not with my husband or me. We "trained" visitors and strangers who wanted to pet her to ignore her while she approached them and then to avoid petting her head or her back. Over time she has gotten much, much better and rarely does this now. Hope your dog makes progress too. I agree that dogs like ours must be trained with care and I think you are doing the right thing to be conscious at all time of your tone of voice when speaking to your dog. Good luck.


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## aprofetto

Wow, thanks for all the input!

I did some googling about submissive and excited peeing. She fit most of the symptoms to a tee. My wife and I are going to make a real effort trying to improve on her confidence and help her get out of this stage.

What worries me is she was never always like this, I hope we didn't do something to make her feel this way. 

We only want the best for her and are willing to do our best to make her happy!


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## DanielleOttoMom

Enzo is 14 weeks old and he does this too. Mostly when I go to pick him up or meeting new people that pet him. Or if he is excited about a toy or bone he will lay on his pillow and a lil' pee comes out.... excitment?? I do hope with time this will pass....


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## Stosh

Stosh started the peeing when he was about that age too and we completely ignored it- within a few months he stopped. Try to keep your voice more even when calling her to avoid the over excitement and when she does it, just go one like nothing happened. Pups often go through a fear stage but most likely she'll outgrow it if she's confident that she hasn't done anything wrong. It's frustrating I know but you have to try to not let it bother you and move on.


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## Tuckered

I know I'm bringing this back after over a month, I have a dog who also used to submissive pee. One of the best things we were told to do with it is when he starts peeing ignore it, always pet from the chest or something lower than his head and don't stand over top of him, also play tug-of-war and let him win to help build confidence and the connection. 

The problem we're having now is that he pees on toys or treats when he thinks our other dog might want it...


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