[bushg]

Pinky You misunderstood me, No I am not a dog trainer.

[pinky5]

pinky You misunderstood me, No I am not a dog trainer.

Oh, OK. I'm sorry I misunderstood you. I read that wrong.

[bushg]

My Smart Puppy :: Puppy Submissive Urination: Urinates When Anxious or Excited read this it will give you an idea of what I am talking to you about.My Smart Puppy :: Puppy Submissive Urination: Urinates When Anxious or Excited this as well. Show your husband some of these sites or print them off and let him read them . If you work with her you could have such a wonderful relationship with your dog.

[pinky5]

My Smart Puppy :: Puppy Submissive Urination: Urinates When Anxious or Excited read this it will give you an idea of what I am talking to you about.My Smart Puppy :: Puppy Submissive Urination: Urinates When Anxious or Excited this as well. Show your husband some of these sites or print them off and let him read them . If you work with her you could have such a wonderful relationship with your dog.

Thank you so much.

[labman]

The more of your posts I read, the more it sounds like you have a dog with bladder control problems. You really need to talk to the vet about it. You might ask the vet about anti anxiously medicine too. It sounds like you could cut the tension in your house with a knife. Dogs can't cope with such an atmosphere.

Like many sites people post links to, I am not impressed with ''Smart Puppy"". There is a ton of garbage on the net. It failed to address the importance of building a dog's confidence. Doing so may help even with the atmosphere in your home. Start with obedience training. The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at Raising Your Dog with the Monks of New Skete As you praise the dog for following your commands, it will build its confidence.

Play tug of war with the dog and lose. However at the end of the game, take the rope or toy and put it up, less the dog becomes confused about who is top dog. Ropes from the pets' store quickly turn to hazardous shreds. Ones I made lasted much better. Go to a hardware or home center that sells rope by the foot. Buy 2' of 3/4" poly rope. Melt the ends, and tie knots in it. Get them as tight as possible, put it in a vise and pound it with a hammer. Watch carefully, and be ready to discard when it comes apart.

Having a den to live in may help too. More so in your home. Having a crate with the door open all the time to retreat to when things become too much, could make a big difference. The sticky, that I have already mentioned, discusses crates, but not introducing an older dog to one.

A dog that has not been crated since it was little, may take some work.
Start just putting its toys and treats in the crate. Praise it for going
in. Feed it in the crate. This is also an easy way to maintain order at
Feeding time for more than one dog.

Once the dog is obedience trained, you control excitement wetting by putting the dog in a down stay. It also helps to have the dog empty its bladder ahead of time if you can. Before guests arrive, take her out and let her urinate. It is usually much less likely to be a problem on an empty bladder. In unexpected times, it may work to pick her up and carry her outside. Dogs usually won't urinate while being carried. I frequently use that technique when I have had a young puppy in somewhere for a while. Quite often they would never make it out without urinating. We certainly used it last April when we spent a weekend at a convention with an 8 week old Golden.

[bushg]

Labman the link was to show her what submissive urination was. Op thought she was peeing out of joy, and excitement. I thought she was peeing from, being afraid. I believed the link provided a good explanation as to what submissive urniation was/ and caused from. I do think that she needs to rule out a medical problem as well. But the yelling and smacking needs to be stopped immediately and the husband needs some type of material to read, so that he can see that the dog is not a "retard" as he thinks. To the op this is the other link that I wanted you to read. I posted the link smart puppy twice, sorry. . Submissive Urination by Perfect Paws Dog and Puppy Training

[pinky5]

The more of your posts I read, the more it sounds like you have a dog with bladder control problems. You really need to talk to the vet about it. You might ask the vet about anti anxiously medicine too. It sounds like you could cut the tension in your house with a knife. Dogs can't cope with such an atmosphere.

Like many sites people post links to, I am not impressed with ''Smart Puppy"". There is a ton of garbage on the net. It failed to address the importance of building a dog's confidence. Doing so may help even with the atmosphere in your home. Start with obedience training. The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at Raising Your Dog with the Monks of New Skete As you praise the dog for following your commands, it will build its confidence.

Play tug of war with the dog and lose. However at the end of the game, take the rope or toy and put it up, less the dog becomes confused about who is top dog. Ropes from the pets' store quickly turn to hazardous shreds. Ones I made lasted much better. Go to a hardware or home center that sells rope by the foot. Buy 2' of 3/4" poly rope. Melt the ends, and tie knots in it. Get them as tight as possible, put it in a vise and pound it with a hammer. Watch carefully, and be ready to discard when it comes apart.

Having a den to live in may help too. More so in your home. Having a crate with the door open all the time to retreat to when things become too much, could make a big difference. The sticky, that I have already mentioned, discusses crates, but not introducing an older dog to one.

A dog that has not been crated since it was little, may take some work.
Start out just putting its toys and treats in the crate. Praise it for going
in. Feed it in the crate. This is also an easy way to maintain order at
feeding time for more than one dog.

Once the dog is obedience trained, you control excitement wetting by putting the dog in a down stay. It also helps to have the dog empty its bladder ahead of time if you can. Before guests arrive, take her out and let her urinate. It is usually much less likely to be a problem on an empty bladder. In unexpected times, it may work to pick her up and carry her outside. Dogs usually won't urinate while being carried. I frequently use that technique when I have had a young puppy in somewhere for a while. Quite often they would never make it out without urinating. We certainly used it last April when we spent a weekend at a convention with an 8 week old Golden.

Thank you so much for your advise. I will try all of that.

[RubyPitbull]

I am sorry I missed this post. Pinky, please follow all the advice you have been given here. Please let us know what the vet says. You do need to rule out any physical problems first.

I will say that if you cannot get your husband to change his behavior toward the dog, there is very little hope that your dog will be completely housebroken. So, you need to have a long and serious talk with him. Print out all the responses and the training tips as you said you were. Of course you know hitting is a big no-no, but yelling is also a no-no. Dogs have very acute hearing. They don't need us to raise our voices to get them to pay attention to us. All that is happening now is that your dog knows that you both are extremely angry with her and she doesn't have a clue as to what she is doing wrong. Timing is everything when it comes to housebreaking. If she pees and you don't see her doing it, EVERYONE needs to keep their mouths closed and just clean up the mess. Ignore the "bad behavior". Praise her every time she goes potty outside. Get excited, tell her she is a "Good Girl" pet her and give her a small treat after she does her business in the correct place. She will eventually associate that good things happen when she does her business outside. She wants the positive attention. The negative attention just confuses her. So, give her no attention when she urinates in the house and you don't see her do it. As labman stated, if you catch her doing it, then give her a firm (but not yelling) "Ah, ah, ah, gently pick her up and get her outside" to do her business. Keep her outside until she does another potty. Then shower her with praise. Since she is older and the training has not gone the way it should, this will take time and A LOT of patience on everyone's part. She is not "retarded." That is such a terrible thing for your husband to say when the fault actually lies with the adults in your household who haven't learned how to train her correctly. Right now, what you have is a dog that is a nervous wreck. She never knows when she will be showered with love and affection, or if she will be hit and yelled at. She is looking for both you and your husband to provide the proper leadership and to teach her the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior with positive reinforcement for the good things she does. That means petting and praise. You will both find that this technique will get through to her. You have already found the negative stuff doesn't work, so what do you have to lose by retraining yourselves on your approach? Your dog is counting on both of your for help with this problem. Don't let her down and you will eventually find that you have the wonderful dog that you have always wanted.