Submissive Urination

I took some time this week and headed  down to visit the doggie daycare.  It has been a couple of weeks since I saw the dog crew and  they were really excited to see me.  I saw a few new faces I hadn't seen in a while.  One caught my eye.  His name is Stanley, a retriever hound husky mix, and he started to growl a little when I approached.  "Why are you growling Stanley?  Don't you remember me.  We're buds!  Come here and walk with me."  So I slowly and carefully caught a hold of Stanley's collar from underneath.   If he tried jumping or attacking, I had him under control.

As soon a I had a hold of his collar, Stanley peed a small amount of urine.  This is known as submissive urination and it is not the first time I have experienced this.  My dominant action of approaching Stanley and taking his collar had caused him to be submissive and urinate.  Stanley then lied down to his side.  This is another sign as to say, "Hey I'm no harm and I don't mean any harm."  

Submissive urination is relatively common in dogs.  Other signs of submissive behaviour include rolling on their back to expose their belly, aversion of the eyes to avoid direct contact and lowering of the head.   Some people mistake submissive urination as a spiteful gesture.  "Oh,  he peed on the carpet again because he's getting back at me."  In fact, it is the opposite.  Fido is peeing because he wants to show us that he's trying to please us and he acknowledges that we are dominant.  He may not know where to pee because every time he has peed in the wrong spot, he was scolded.  What we have to remember is that submissive peeing should only be a small amount.  If peeing occurs frequently and not in small amounts, a veterinarian exam should be taken for your dog. 

After Stanley acknowledged my position in the pack, he followed me around and stood by me most of the evening.  He became a loyal friend.  He stopped his growling and later that evening gave me a couple of barks.  Reading his body language and listening to the type of bark, it was Stanley signaling to me, "hey, take me out.  This time I really need to pee."  And so I took him out for his pit stop and he peed a long one for me.  "Good boy!  And next time,  you don't have to do the submissive pee thing anymore, we're pals remember?"