Anyone have a dog that pees when they are scared? My dog is very nervous due to abuse before we rescued. Anytime she is startled she pees. Any advice on what to do to help this?
Joseph Solano
My girl Shih Tzu used to do this before, she is very gentle and shy. Before when she was a puppy she would pee whenever we try to approach her. Now, we don’t surprise or try to startle her as much as possible ever since and we tried to create a safe environment for her so that she wouldn’t feel threatened or scared.
Katy Lauren
Poor doggo. As above, treating her with lots of comfort and love. It could be due to being frightened or perhaps a submissive wee. It should subside over time once she gains your trust.
We had similar issues with a temporary foster dog, he was absolutely fine with me but would pee every time my husband went near him, simply because he'd never really been around men and couldn't be socialised as a pup due to covid lockdowns. It got better with time
Laura Napier
I think it is fairly common for dogs to pee a little, not just when they are scared but also when they get excited. My old rottweiler would tinkle a little when she got excited, like when someone came over and pet her. We had to tell everyone that came in to ignore the dog for a few minutes. Once she was settled from the initial excitement, they could pet her and she was fine. Now my Husky does the exact same thing. If I know someone is coming over, I'll put her outside before their arrival so when she sees them, she'll already be outside. They both did / do it even if they had just gone potty outside. The same is true if they found something very startling. Two perfectly house trained dogs with no history of abuse still pee a little when they were/are excited.
I would just try to limit the excessive stimulation when possible, learn their triggers, plan to make a trip outside if you can predict the triggers, and clean up the mess with no negative or positive reinforcers when it does happen.
Joseph Solano
My girl Shih Tzu used to do this before, she is very gentle and shy. Before when she was a puppy she would pee whenever we try to approach her. Now, we don’t surprise or try to startle her as much as possible ever since and we tried to create a safe environment for her so that she wouldn’t feel threatened or scared.
Katy Lauren
Poor doggo. As above, treating her with lots of comfort and love. It could be due to being frightened or perhaps a submissive wee. It should subside over time once she gains your trust. We had similar issues with a temporary foster dog, he was absolutely fine with me but would pee every time my husband went near him, simply because he'd never really been around men and couldn't be socialised as a pup due to covid lockdowns. It got better with time
Laura Napier
I think it is fairly common for dogs to pee a little, not just when they are scared but also when they get excited. My old rottweiler would tinkle a little when she got excited, like when someone came over and pet her. We had to tell everyone that came in to ignore the dog for a few minutes. Once she was settled from the initial excitement, they could pet her and she was fine. Now my Husky does the exact same thing. If I know someone is coming over, I'll put her outside before their arrival so when she sees them, she'll already be outside. They both did / do it even if they had just gone potty outside. The same is true if they found something very startling. Two perfectly house trained dogs with no history of abuse still pee a little when they were/are excited. I would just try to limit the excessive stimulation when possible, learn their triggers, plan to make a trip outside if you can predict the triggers, and clean up the mess with no negative or positive reinforcers when it does happen.