The whole family is coming home from a shopping trip, and it’s been a few hours since you’ve seen your puppy. Even though you know your puppy won’t quite understand you, you still want to show him the new shoes that you wore right out of the store. As you all burst through the door, you all let out excited shouts and exclamations of, “Were you a good boy?” and, “We missed you so much!” Your puppy is running around in circles after you let him out of the crate, and his tail is wagging as he lets out little yips and whines of happiness to see everyone.
However, you feel a warm, wet feeling on your socks and realize that’s not a spilled water bottle – it’s puppy pee, and it’s soaked your brand-new shoes! You are feeling a range of emotions but know you can’t take out your frustration on your puppy. You wonder, “How do I get my puppy to stop excited peeing before he ruins the rest of my shoes and everything below shin level in this house?”
If you’ve ever dealt with the frustration of having a puppy that pees when he’s excited, anxious, fearful, or submissive, you know that you’d do just about anything to stop this behavior. Luckily, understanding the reasons why your puppy pees when excited and how to address the problem can stop unwanted puddles.
When Do Puppies Pee When Excited or Submissive?
While our puppies may delight us with their cute antics, there is nothing cute about constantly having to clean up pee puddles or other items doused in urine. Puppies are still just babies and are learning how to control their bladders, especially hyper and happy puppies. They get a spike in emotions and can’t hold their bladders with an involuntary release. A puppy may urinate excitedly even after you take them outside to empty their bladders when you know guests are about to knock on the door, but it still happens. Why?
Here are some situations your puppy pees that you may have experienced:
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People greeting them, strangers and family alike
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Being scolded or think they may be in trouble
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Hearing loud noises or being startled
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Emotional distress
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Lively playtime
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Separation anxiety
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Rolling over, showing their belly, or crouching
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Wanting to acknowledge dominance over a person or another dog
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Showing people they consider to be the leader that they are not a threat
Puppies may not squat when excited peeing; rather, urine could be released while they are walking, jumping, or rolling over. It may not be a steady stream but a series of dribbles across the floor, carpet, or your shoes!
Submissive urination is different from when dogs lift their legs to mark their territories. If you have a dog peeing on your furniture and floor when trying to assert dominance, you should look into curbing the issue of dog marking rather than trying techniques for excited peeing.
Ruling out medical reasons for submissive urination
Sometimes, the answer is medical in nature rather than behavioral. Inappropriate urination could indicate an underlying health issue. Always call your vet to rule out any issues with your puppy, as all the training in the world might not help. Your vet may want to run tests, take urine samples, order ultrasounds, or other procedures to investigate possible causes. Some medical causes of a puppy losing bladder control could be:
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Urinary tract infection
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An inherently weak bladder
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A change in diet
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Bladder stones
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Incomplete housetraining process
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Kidney disease
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Canine diabetes
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Liver disease/shunt
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Bladder inflammation (cystitis)
Training Your Dog to Stop Excited Peeing
You may be dismayed to learn that young puppies can’t control when they pee excitedly, but have no fear! Young puppies often grow out of submissive urination as they mature and can hold their excitement – and bladder.
Until your puppy grows older, there are ways to stop a dog from excited peeing through training and patience. You won’t have to keep buying stock in enzyme cleaners, upholstery cleaning machines, or mops! Training your dog to stop submissive and excited urination is not accomplished in one day. It will take consistency, patience, time, and plenty of positive reinforcement to address the puddle problem.
Methods to help prevent excited peeing in puppies
You may try one method to help prevent submissive urination in puppies that sticks right away. However, you may have to try different techniques before you find the one that works best for your puppy. That being said, always be willing to stay consistent to get your puppy used to new procedures and training styles before trying them all at once.
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Make sure your puppy is on a consistent elimination schedule with regular chances to urinate outside. This also means being cognizant of how much water you are giving your puppy throughout the day.
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Ensure your puppy is getting adequate exercise. You want to find as many ways as possible to tap into their energy and give them chances to “get the zoomies out” to keep them occupied and active.
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When you know you will be having guests over, take your puppy out to pee before they get there. Make it as boring and routine as possible so your puppy can focus on emptying his bladder.
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Teaching your puppy to relax while you are away can reduce separation anxiety in dogs. Play calm music, keep the lights low, and associate its crate as a safe resting place with crate training.
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Work on teaching your puppy how to greet guests appropriately using methods outlined in our linked blog. Many of these techniques focus on immediate redirection from guests, such as scattering treats in the opposite direction
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Be the most boring person possible when you come home. Do not make eye contact or speak to your puppy until he settles down. Only then calmly acknowledge him on his level. This teaches your puppy to regulate its excited behavior before you give him your attention as a reward.
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Instruct your guests to ignore your puppy and come in calmly instead of rushing to pet him and using high-pitched tones. Your puppy will learn to be curious and calm around guests if you ask your guests to help you work on training your puppy as well as a team effort.
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Rather than allow your puppy free access to the door visitors come through, separate them in another room through a baby gate where they can observe. Once your puppy settles, then allow them to join everyone, your guests being calm and practicing your tips.
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If you are out on a training walk, decline when people ask to pet your dog to limit the chance of excited peeing.
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Use treats instead of physical touch since touch can trigger excited peeing. Treats are usually a better positive reinforcer of new concepts since most puppies are very food-motivated.
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Build up your puppy’s confidence if they suffer from submissive peeing. A more confident puppy is less likely to be fearful or anxious, shifting their mindset to default to submissive peeing.
Seeking professional help
If you’ve tried methods and aren’t getting anywhere, you may want to contact an animal behavioralist to get professional help. They can assess your puppy’s triggers by recognizing patterns you might not see and work on specific methods to stop unwanted behaviors with a personalized behavior plan.
The “don’ts” of stopping submissive urination in your puppy
While there are plenty of methods to try to stop excited urination in your dog, there are also several wrong ways to go about addressing the piddle problem.
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Don’t just do nothing and have an, “Oh, well!” attitude. Help your puppy learn to be the best version of themselves through training for a well-rounded adult dog. No one wants a dog that keeps peeing in the house because you never worked with him on the issue when he was younger!
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Never hit or yell at your puppy! This will continue to make the problem worse, as your puppy will become even more fearful and increase the chance of repeat submissive urination.
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Don’t lean over to pet him because he could interpret that as a dominant move. Instead, crouch or sit down at eye level with your puppy and scratch him under his chin. Don’t make sudden moves or look him directly in the eye; rather, approach from the side so as to not appear threatening.
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Don’t ignore your puppy when he is peeing. Always try to redirect, even mid-stream, and stay consistent with training methods.
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Clean up your puppy’s pee without acknowledging it to your dog, such as putting its face in it or getting irritated at your puppy.
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Don’t do this alone. Ask everyone in the household to get on board, and include guests and friends in your training efforts.
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Patience, patience, patience! You can’t fix this issue overnight. Even with the best training methods, you may have to wait until your puppy is older and keep trying till they are more mature.
Get Excited About a Pawrade Puppy
When raising a puppy, you have to have a lot of patience for some of the not-so-glamorous aspects of puppy parenting. However, you know it’s all worth it in the end, and you wouldn’t trade that whole bottle of enzyme cleaner and roll of paper towels for the world.
Another aspect you may be running out of patience for is finding your perfect furry companion. You may have put in several applications to rescues or signed up for long waitlists for your specific breed choice, only to be turned away or left waiting longer than you’d like. That’s where Pawrade is the clear choice for puppy adoptions.
We partner with reputable breeders who are committed to our rigorous standards and have passed a screening process to join our team. Each puppy is raised in a loving, caring, clean environment while waiting to become old enough to travel to their new home. When you find the puppy of your dreams, it’s as easy as clicking “reserve me.” You have several puppy travel options available to fit your lifestyle to meet your puppy in mere days rather than waiting months for your new furbaby to join you. Browse our puppies for sale to let us know which one excites you the most!
