# Excitement peeing



## BanJojo (Dec 17, 2008)

So my dog pees on herself when she gets excited. It's not that she's not housetrained and just doesn't care. She can't control it. She will pee and get it on herself, which I don't think dogs will do if they can help it. We've tried making greetings less exciting, but she still gets so excited even when she just sees us, that she pees. We finally figured out that if I go to her crate and immediately get the leash on and take her outside, she will pee outside like normally when I take her out, and calm down enough before we take her inside to not pee again. This solves the problem to some extent, but there are other times when there is no greeting involved and it comes as a total surprise that she is that excited. 
Is this going cause problems in her housetraining? She is quite close to getting it. She only goes outside unless we leave her and our not-so-housetrained dog inside not in the crates for a long work day or something, and then we'll sometimes come home to a mess (although it's not clear whether it's her or the other dog, but we are not comfortable leaving them both in crates for such a long day, 8 or 9 hours, sometimes more). 

Also, is there any way to help her? To maybe not get so excited, or learn to control it, or something? 
She sometimes does it submissively, too. Only with my boyfriend, when he is gruff with her. Not mean, just like when he tells her down and makes sure she stays down when she jumps up and scratches him by accident by holding her collar. The thing is, she'll pee all over herself (and we can't even wash it off right now, because it's so cold she would get sick...but we're moving to a warmer place, soon, anyway.), so I know it's not just an "accident" she really can't control it.


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## TrueBlue4You (Jan 16, 2009)

Hi 

I _just_ had to deal with this problem starting yesterday. My Aussie pup had started to develop the same habit, so let me just tell you what I did. She's housetrained very well because all she's got to do is stare at the door and she gets let out to do her business.  Also, let me also throw in the fact that we don't have to say anything to her for her to get to the level of excitement she shows. It's natural for pets to show excitement to their owners without instigation. 

When she hears the garage door open, she's already alert. And when the door opens, she starts to wag her tail and sniff excitedly at us (we put her on a leash in the house while we're gone). At this point, I quickly give a loud "NO" and snap my fingers because this is how I discipline her. The way you tell your dog not to do something may be different, but still, the point is: get her attention on you enough for her to stop what she's doing. 

If she stops, that's good. Now I make my way slowly to her. If she moves again in any way, I STOP and give a loud "NO" and snap my fingers to get her attention again and get her to stand still. I had to repeat this step several times until she calms herself enough and lies down. If repeated, this will tell your dog that you will not approach her unless she's calm and avoids peeing on herself. 

Once lying down, I have to calmly reach and unhook her leash and say "go pee-pee!" because that's her "go" signal. She's right near the door, so, I say that once she is calm and I've opened the door. 

There are instances that I come home and my Aussie pees a very small puddle on the floor when she sees me even though my sister said they had just let her out 10 minutes ago to pee. -_-; 

Because we leash her up during the day when no one's home, this works for our pup because the leash prevents her from coming up to us and pee. If there were no leash, there is no way we can prevent that from happening. Being leashed up gives the perfect restraint, just as if someone else were holding her back.

Good luck, I hope that my example can give you ideas on what's the best approach for your dog. Also, hopefully, some of the wisened dog-owners would give us some lessons, too. 

*EDIT*
I got up this morning at 6 am to let the puppy do her business outside, and I could hear the leash rattling on its hook all the way in the kitchen because she heard my door open. When I turned on the lights, she did that head bob where she's about to charge into someone and her tail was wagging super-fast. Before she moved any further, I did a quick "NO" and got her to stop. She even got so far as to lying on her back. And even though she was calm, any false move on my part would result in a fatal accident. LOL Well, urine accident. So, while I was rubbing her tummy, I got the door open, said her go words, and she bolted out the door. We bought some pee pads yesterday to help prevent even more tears and frustration, and when I looked I saw a nickel-sized mark of pee on there. There's still a little bit of pee, but that is better than one the size of a CD.


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## BanJojo (Dec 17, 2008)

I'm glad you've had so much luck with it, and thanks for the advice. My dog is still fairly new to us, and we have not yet gotten a discipline word, and we have tried our best to distract her, or to enter very calmly, but even with her in the crate when we get home, it doesn't help any. I will sit by the crate and talk calmly and quietly to get her to calm down before letting her out, but she still peed all over. So I just let her out of the crate, grab the leash and run with her out the door, so that she doesn't even get the chance.


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## WalkerDog (Jan 19, 2009)

I would strongly recommend the exercises in Control Unleashed (found here), which helps you teach your dog to learn to calm herself. There are some great exercises and ideas in there, and it's applicable to every dog you'll ever own! It has a lot of new and unique information you won't find int he typical dog training course.

One of the things they recommend is massage. If you know T-Touch (Tellington Touch), that's even better. I would do this every time you approach the dog. Soon, her body will automatically start to calm itself down when you approach. It's a very positive way of teaching her to calm down and teaching self-control. 

I would be careful how much shouting, etc., that you do. Dogs with a tendency to pee are also extra-sensitive to aversives like loud noises or other punishments. This also means that you may want to avoid looming over her or using any other body language that may be seen as intimidating. Avoid eye contact when you're interacting with her, as this can get her more excited and/or nervous. 

Rolling on the back, prior to ever experiencing belly-rubbing, is a sign that your dog is trying to turn your wrath away ("Please, don't hurt me! Look, I'm harmless!"). That's a sign that you're scaring your dog. The two reasons dogs pee are excitement and fear. You may reduce the peeing out of excitement, only to cause peeing out of fear!


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## BanJojo (Dec 17, 2008)

Is there anywhere I could learn T-touch? I can't buy a book right now, it's hard enough just to afford my college books for the coming semester, but I'd like to try to calm her down with massage and pressure points.


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## WalkerDog (Jan 19, 2009)

BanJojo said:


> Is there anywhere I could learn T-touch? I can't buy a book right now, it's hard enough just to afford my college books for the coming semester, but I'd like to try to calm her down with massage and pressure points.


There are some people certified in teaching T-Touch, but it would be just as expensive (if not more so) as it would be to buy a book. I'm definitely not trained in T-Touch, but I get the impression that it's based on human pressure points, as used in acupuncture. So, it's possible that you can learn human pressure points and basically use a circular, very light massage on those same points in the dog. Unlike other massages, it's supposed to be feather light. 

Honestly, though, any massage you attempt would help, so long as you can get the dog calm and relaxed (which means you need to be calm and relaxed, and your touch should be gentle and relaxing).

Good luck!


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## BanJojo (Dec 17, 2008)

Thanks, I'm going to do some research on that and see if I can find some basic instructions.


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