Little accidents

[Justontime]

My mother has a one year old Shih Tsu bitch, she has had her since she was a puppy and she is very well house trained. She is a lively confident and mischievous dog, she gets on well with the other dogs in the household and she enjoys attention from from family members and visitors. The problem we have is that when she sees my husband (we usually visit weekly) she gets so excited that she wets herself, it doesn't happen with any other visitors, just my husband. Why does it happen and how can we solve the problem? At the moment we have to ring ahead for the dogs to be put out in the garden before we arrive.

[Stephanie]

What does your husband do when he sees the dog? The best thing he can do is ignore the dog until she calms down. Excitement pee is very common, especially in younger dogs. This said, I walk a 3 year old staffie who will pee out of excitement when she sees me too. When I go to pick her up, I enter the house calmly and partically ignore her, I do not stroke her or talk to her or make any fuss. She smells all around me and sometimes she jumps up at me too, but I ignore all this because I know if I react she will pee. Once she has stopped fussing around me, I ask her come and I can touch her and put her lead on with no problem.

[Bill]

It's called submissive urination. The dog is telling your husband, "OK, you are the boss, I will do anything you want." Does your husband have a dominant personality around the dog or anytime? I agree with Stephanie's suggestion to have your husband ignore the dog until it settles down.

[Justontime]

All the dogs adore my husband. He is not excessively dominant, perhaps the best way to explain it is to say that he is more in touch with his inner child than most men of his age. He will get down on the floor and play with the dogs (but not as soon as he gets into the house). We have tries the ignoring tactic, but the accident happens within seconds of her seeing my husband so he doesn't really get a chance to ignore her. All the dogs like him but thankfully the others don't feel the need to urinate when they see him.

[Orrymain]

I've never heard of that before and fortunately haven't had problems with it. Interesting.