Many pet owners get frustrated with their dog for urinating in the floor when they are approached by someone or when you first get home to greet them. Many people feel that this is a house breaking issue, but the majority of the time it may not be. Also, if you are dealing with these types of issues with your pet, double check to make sure they do not have a medical condition.

A lot of times, especially with puppies we see what is called submissive urination. This is when your puppy or adult dog may urinate whenever you are a stranger approaches them. I know it’s hard, but you should be patient with this behavior and not treat it as a house breaking issue. This type of behavior is initially seen as a type of insecurity or intimidation especially for young pups. Socialization is the key when dealing with this type of issue. When my dog was a pup up until she was about 6 months old if any man with a deep voice spoke to her she would immediately urinate wherever she was. We made our mission to introduce her to any and all men we came into contact with and now she is about a year old and perfectly fine.

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After the pup has a good idea of what you want him to do, begin to ease off using tidbits every time. Do not let yourself use tidbits as a bribe. It is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if you give a puppy a treat he will be good. But from the dog’s viewpoint, it looks like you are treating him as top dog and whatever he wants to do is okay with you. So only use tidbits when you are teaching a specific thing and only long enough to be sure he has learned it and associates the act with the word for it. Then ease off to the point of stopping the use.

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