Why does my dog urinate when excited or scared?

Some dogs may be prone to leaking urine when they are excited, stressed or when meeting people or other dogs. This is often known as 'submissive urination'. This is a dog's way of showing appeasement behaviour to a higher ranking individual and is usually displayed in dogs that lack confidence.

The best remedy for this is to ignore the dog and carry on with your business for a few minutes. You can then ask your dog to sit and calmly go and greet your dog. You can also ask friends and family to greet your dog calmly by kneeling down to the dog's level, avoiding eye contact and letting the dog come to them, rather than approaching the dog. A good idea is to teach your dog to sit before people go to greet him. This is handy not just for submissive urination, but also to teach the dog not to jump up at people and to ensure that visitors that are not comfortable around dogs are not scared.

Until this behaviour subsides, have the door entrance area covered with polythene or a large washable matt and a towel so that you can manoeuvre your puppy to that area when he is being greeted.

Never tell your dog off for submissive urination as it will only worsen the situation and the dog will urinate more in an attempt to try to further appease you. With time, the submissive urination will very likely disappear off its own accord, as puppies eventually grow up to be happy, confident dogs if raised in a positive and happy environment.