Excitable puppy

Dub Ste

We recently got a lovely little puppy,a patterdale mixed with whoknows what,and he is absolutely adorable.

We keep him out the back,we have a very big back garden,he has plenty of toys,and he is happy as Larry out there.

It's just when we get home to him,when he sees us,he gets very excited,and pees all over the place,you bend to stroke him, he pees,you tell him to get in his basket,he pees,and on it goes.

I read on a previous post on here that people don't recommend rubbing his nose in the pee,and I don't want to slap him,cos I feel awful doing it,but I need to get him out of this habit.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what we should do.

Thanks in advance....Steve

andreac

Why would you slap him anyway??

Hes just happy to see you as hes been outside on his own all day, of course hes going to be excited, hes not doing anything wrong

How old is the pup? Pups dont have control of their bladder until they mature so when they get excited they will pee, they cant help it.

When you come home, try and ignore the pup until it has calmed down, dont give it any attention when its jumping around the place.
Once its calmed down then give it attention.

How long is the pup left on its own anyway? As young pups should not be left all day by themselves, esp out in the garden on their own.

ISDW

Agree with everything andreac says.

You say you don't want to slap him because you feel awful doing it, which suggests to me that you do, or have slapped him? Please don't, he's a baby, all he's going to learn from that is when he goes to see you, he gets hit. Which will make him fearful and actually more prone to peeing.

portgirl123

+1 with what andreac says. why would you slap or rub his nose in it. this will only make the prob worst.
2 of mine used to do this when they were pups, all we did was as andreac said try and keep everything calm. if they pee just ignore it. he will grow out of it once he learns to keep calm and he gains confedience.
how old is he? just sounds like he is just so excited to see you when you come home. What to you do at the moment when he pees?

Dub Ste

andreac wrote: »

Why would you slap him anyway??

Hes just happy to see you as hes been outside on his own all day, of course hes going to be excited, hes not doing anything wrong

How old is the pup? Pups dont have control of their bladder until they mature so when they get excited they will pee, they cant help it.

When you come home, try and ignore the pup until it has calmed down, dont give it any attention when its jumping around the place.
Once its calmed down then give it attention.

How long is the pup left on its own anyway? As young pups should not be left all day by themselves, esp out in the garden on their own.

Hi Andrea,

I'm not saying he is doing anything wrong,and I'm NOT giving him a slap.
I read on a previous post on here,that someone said that you shouldn't rub his nose in the pee,but give him a slap,I don't want to slap him,thats not in my nature,I was just looking for some advice.
He is adorable,and I'd NEVER hurt him,I can't emphasize this point enough.

I just wish people would ALL of my original post before making judgements,that's all.

portgirl123

how old is the pup? how long is he left outside? just the more we no, the more ppl can help.

Dub Ste

portgirl123 wrote: »

how old is the pup? how long is he left outside? just the more we no, the more ppl can help.

He's five months old,and he is outside for about six hours.

The guy we got him off who breeds dogs,assured us he is a sturdy little dog,who will be fine outside for this amount of time,as long as it's good weather.
We only leave him outside when it is fine,otherwise he stays indoors.

I don't mean to be getting snippy or anything with anyone,I just want advice.

andreac

Dub Ste wrote: »

We recently got a lovely little puppy,a patterdale mixed with whoknows what,and he is absolutely adorable.

We keep him out the back,we have a very big back garden,he has plenty of toys,and he is happy as Larry out there.

It's just when we get home to him,when he sees us,he gets very excited,and pees all over the place,you bend to stroke him, he pees,you tell him to get in his basket,he pees,and on it goes.

I read on a previous post on here that people don't recommend rubbing his nose in the pee,and I don't want to slap him,cos I feel awful doing it,but I need to get him out of this habit.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what we should do.

Thanks in advance....Steve

Em, i did read your post perfectly well thanks and theres no need to shout:rolleyes:
Why are you just targetting me anyway? i wasnt the only one to say not to hit your dog.

If you see the part i highlighted from your post,you said you feel bad DOING it, which means you have already done it. If you hadnt done it, you would have said, i dont "want" to do it.

I did give you advice if you cared to read my reply properly.

ISDW

Dub Ste wrote: »

He's five months old,and he is outside for about six hours.

The guy we got him off who breeds dogs,assured us he is a sturdy little dog,who will be fine outside for this amount of time,as long as it's good weather.
We only leave him outside when it is fine,otherwise he stays indoors.

I don't mean to be getting snippy or anything with anyone,I just want advice.

First off, I don't think you should be shouting at andreac like that, I did read your post and you said "I feel awful doing it". How else would you think people would read that, except that you do it. If you don't do it, fair enough, but maybe type it differently - I would feel awful doing it?

Just because someone breeds dogs doesn't mean that they actually have the welfare of the dog at heart, there are many, many back yard breeders and puppy farmers out there who breed just for the money.

Leaving a puppy on their own for that long isn't a good idea - an adult dog can cope with it, but a pup needs to learn from its family, its not about leaving it outside, its the bit about being on his own.

How old was the pup when you got him? If you've only recently got him, why did the breeder keep hold of him that long? There is a possibility that he could have a medical condition that is causing this, and maybe the previous owner didn't want to pay to get it sorted.

Calmness is the key. When he does it, just ignore it, its not as though he's doing it on purpose. There is also the possibility that the previous owner did punish him when he did it, so it may take a while to get over this. But you just have to stay calm and ignore it. If however it doesn't get better with this approach, I would suggest a trip to the vet.

Have you taken him to the vet since you got him? I would always suggest a check up whenever anybody takes no a new dog, maybe take him along and just mention it, see what they say.

barbiegirl

We have a 5 month old little jack russell/king charles cross and he does the whole jumping and getting excited when I get home too. I completly ignore him, well other than drying his paws until he calms down, then when he is sitting I give him loads of praise, he's learning and the ignoring time is reducing every day.
As to the pee thing, at 5 months I would expect a bit more control, but I know my sisters 5 month St Bernard does the same.
In fact off topic but funny is a terrible way. Last weekend my sisters neighbour, who is a cousin, called her dog over, and gave him the sign to jump on the gate, which he duly did. A visitor, who thankfully is also related to us, started to rub him down, and yep you ot it he was perfectly positioned and peed all over the poor man.
As to what you can do, I don't think you can do anything other than maybe check with the vet there is nothing actually wrong, which I've told my sister to too, and try the ignoring thing, as this will stop him getting so excited and hopefully pfrom peeing so much.
Best of luck

LisaO

Our Border Terrier used to pee when excited as well but he did grow out of it - although not until he was about a year old. As other posters have said, calm & relaxed is the key. We could come & go and he was fine, as we would ignore him when we came in until he was calm & then just talk to him quietly. Problem was when visitors called - "Oh, what a cute little puppyyyy" Cue puddles everywhere

RubyGirl

We have a 3.5 month old pup and she does the same. Trying to get her from her crate to the back door with two other dogs in the morning can be a challenge.
Just do your "hello's" outside when you come home and then bring her in.
She will grow out of it.

Dub Ste

Listen ladies,I think I may have gone about this the wrong way,and may have upset/annoyed some of ye by just being a dopey man !!

I meant to say that I had read some previous threads on here,and there were many differing opinions,some said rub his nose,some said slap them if they kept doing it,some said ignore,so I was just wanting.

I'd never slap him,if you could only see his little face when we come home,you'd understand why.

Now to be honest,I don't mind cleaning up after him,I'd do anything for the fecker,just wanted to judge how long he's gonna keep on peeing

Again,I apologise if I annoyed anyone,it really wasn't my intention.

Thanks for advice so far,appreciate it.

Yours with tail firmly between the legs,

Steve

barbiegirl

Dub Ste you know you can't have row with yourself. Perhaps a couple of people took umbridge and attacked, and perhaps you didn't express yourself properly initially. Happens to everyone at least once on here.
Get that tail back out and wagging ;-)

ISDW

Dub Ste wrote: »

Listen ladies,I think I may have gone about this the wrong way,and may have upset/annoyed some of ye by just being a dopey man !!

I meant to say that I had read some previous threads on here,and there were many differing opinions,some said rub his nose,some said slap them if they kept doing it,some said ignore,so I was just wanting.

I'd never slap him,if you could only see his little face when we come home,you'd understand why.

Now to be honest,I don't mind cleaning up after him,I'd do anything for the fecker,just wanted to judge how long he's gonna keep on peeing

Again,I apologise if I annoyed anyone,it really wasn't my intention.

Thanks for advice so far,appreciate it.

Yours with tail firmly between the legs,

Steve

Thanks Steve, appreciate the post.

You can keep your tail between your legs if you want, just please don't pee:D;)

LucyBliss

If he's peeing because of excitement, that's completely different to a dog who is going around peeing in the house and disregarding previous training. So I would say that chastising him isn't really beneficial because he's excited and can't help it. We had a dog who peed when visitors arrived too. The worst day was when we met someone while out walking, she peed, then sat down and brushed her tail tro and fro in it and drops hit the other person's face. I seriously didn't know where to look. Luckily, that person owned dogs and had a sense of humour. Still though, yikes!

I think it's probably a combination of puppy excitement and small terrier bladder. We have a terrier cross who is about 3 years old and sometimes she will leave little dribbles when she knows she's going for a walk. More than likely, he'll grow out of it and as mentioned upthread, probably no harm to work on not paying attention to him until he's calm part of the daily routine.

Sometimes I think it's dog owners like us that keep the kitchen towel and floor detergent companies in business!

theghost

My lab/collie cross used to do this as a pup. I found that ignoring her until she had calmed down helped a lot. If she jumps up at you turn your back without a word. Once she's calmed down then say hello and make a fuss of her.

shinikins

+1 on ignoring the dog until he calms down. It really is the best way to solve the peeing problem. As a boonus it will also help to reinforce his position in the pack and should be helpful with obedience. If he pee's while he's learning this just mop it up silently, as a dog will think that any reaction is a good reaction and keep doing iot.

On a side note, why are people so quick to jump on the bandwagon? Is it not possible that the OP wrote "I feel awful" when he meant to write "I'd feel awful"? I thought after the recent debate in the Driving thread that everyone was going to make more of an effort to be nice to new posters. If the question had been asked "what do you mean OP when you say this...." i'm sure the issue would have been clarified without hackles being raised. Just a thought.

The Sweeper

Dub Ste wrote: »

I meant to say that I had read some previous threads on here,and there were many differing opinions,some said rub his nose,some said slap them if they kept doing it,some said ignore,so I was just wanting.

Okay so you have the idea that slapping or shouting at the dog doesn't work.

In terms of ignore it / do something about it, it depends WHY the dog is peeing.

If your pup was piddling in the house as a matter of 'oo, got the urge to pee, gonna go right here', you would intervene when you caught the dog in mid-pee - something like a sharp noise, or a clap of your hands and a firm no - sometihng to surprise the pup. Then you'd take the pup outside immediately and see if they would resume peeing, and praise them to the high heavens with cuddles and a food treat if they did.

If they were all peed out, you'd go back to basics and take the pup outside after eating, drinking, playing, waking up, and every hour approximately otherwise and hang around until the pup started to pee, mark the action with a word (e.g. they squat, you say 'toilet', and then as they pee you praise them). They quickly learn to hold it while they're indoors if you make the training clear.

The flip side is excitable peeing. Correcting excitable peeing is more difficult because the dog is excited because they want attention - and whether positive or negative, all attention is good according to the dog. So if the dog is wiggling and carrying on and dancing on the spot and then pees, whether you pat them or say NO! and clap your hands -that's all attention, that's all worthy of more peeing.

The trick with excitable peeing, as other posters have said, is to ignore the dog.

Dog in the yard. You come home. Dog dancing about like a nutjob. Go stand at the door. Dog carries on jumping and spinning and being a nut. Do not make eye contact. Do not look at the dog. Fold your arms. Look up at the sky or the ceiling. Do not open the door. Do not put a hand on the door.

The dog lives to please you. The arms folded, no eye contact body language is not pleased body language. Dogs are clever readers of body language. Your dog thinks 'Eh? What's up with my owner?' and their automatic response is to stop, stay still and look at you.

Only when the dog is still and watching you should you reach for the door - at which point they'll kick off again. Stop. Fold your arms again. Don't move. Look at the sky. Turn your back if you have to.

It may take quite some time, but eventually your dog may nick off in a strop of frustration and confusion and go and lie in the garden away from the door, which gives you the opporutnity to get out the door while the dog is calm.

Once outside, continue to completely ignore the dog. Wiggling, peeing, jumping, being vocal, dancing about - none of these behaviours gets a reward, and the reward is your attention. So you completely ignore the dog. If the dog jumps up on you, turn away. Keep your arms folded. Look everywhere but at the dog. Stand on the spot. Pretend the dog isn't there.

Again, wondering what's wrong with you, the dog will stop carrying on and stand watching you for a cue.

This quiet behaviour - the standing or sitting still, the calm - this is what you reward, with attention and a food treat (though a dog that pees in excitement when they see you is so driven by the need for your attention that you may not even need a treat).

Have you ever seen how a meter reader, or a handyman, or the postman, behaves towards a dog when they come to your home? They see lots of dogs. They've learned to ignore them. So they usually don't make eye contact, don't pat the dog, walk past it as though it's not there, ignore it, don't call it, don't offer it approval, don't even look at it.

THAT is how you need to behave towards your dog until he's doing what you want him to do, and the moment he's doing what you want him to do, THEN you reward him with attention.

Every single person in your house needs to do the same thing. Visitors to your home need to be asked to do the same thing. Ignore the dog. There's the dog, please ignore him, we're trying to train him to be calm and social without behaving like a mental piddling spinning-top whenever anyone comes in.

Socialisation will balance his exuberant excitement when he sees people as well, but the trick is to socialise him with people who are ignoring him. You may need to set up a system to allow him into your house - say the kitchen (easy clean floor!). Keep him on the lead in the house so you have control.

You'd follow the 'ignoring you' process to go outside and put a leash on the dog. Then bring him into a kitchen of people who totally and utterly ignore him. When he settles, which he will, YOU reward him with a pat and a treat, but don't make a huge fuss (because you'll just set him off again). The better behaved he is, the longer he's allowed to stay indoors.

The longer he stays indoors, the more calm and social he'll feel - he's genetically driven by thousands of years of breeding to integrate himself into a pack - so when you leave him outdoors on his own for hours, he's frantic to see you when you come home.

The plus side to having a dog that pees in excitement is that this is a dog that's very driven by your attention and approval, and you can use that to your advantage in training your dog. (If the dog didn't give a toss whether or not you gave it the time of day, you'd be stuck trying to find something to motivate it to do what it's asked.)

Dub Ste

The Sweeper wrote: »

Okay so you have the idea that slapping or shouting at the dog doesn't work.

In terms of ignore it / do something about it, it depends WHY the dog is peeing.

If your pup was piddling in the house as a matter of 'oo, got the urge to pee, gonna go right here', you would intervene when you caught the dog in mid-pee - something like a sharp noise, or a clap of your hands and a firm no - sometihng to surprise the pup. Then you'd take the pup outside immediately and see if they would resume peeing, and praise them to the high heavens with cuddles and a food treat if they did.

If they were all peed out, you'd go back to basics and take the pup outside after eating, drinking, playing, waking up, and every hour approximately otherwise and hang around until the pup started to pee, mark the action with a word (e.g. they squat, you say 'toilet', and then as they pee you praise them). They quickly learn to hold it while they're indoors if you make the training clear.

The flip side is excitable peeing. Correcting excitable peeing is more difficult because the dog is excited because they want attention - and whether positive or negative, all attention is good according to the dog. So if the dog is wiggling and carrying on and dancing on the spot and then pees, whether you pat them or say NO! and clap your hands -that's all attention, that's all worthy of more peeing.

The trick with excitable peeing, as other posters have said, is to ignore the dog.

Dog in the yard. You come home. Dog dancing about like a nutjob. Go stand at the door. Dog carries on jumping and spinning and being a nut. Do not make eye contact. Do not look at the dog. Fold your arms. Look up at the sky or the ceiling. Do not open the door. Do not put a hand on the door.

The dog lives to please you. The arms folded, no eye contact body language is not pleased body language. Dogs are clever readers of body language. Your dog thinks 'Eh? What's up with my owner?' and their automatic response is to stop, stay still and look at you.

Only when the dog is still and watching you should you reach for the door - at which point they'll kick off again. Stop. Fold your arms again. Don't move. Look at the sky. Turn your back if you have to.

It may take quite some time, but eventually your dog may nick off in a strop of frustration and confusion and go and lie in the garden away from the door, which gives you the opporutnity to get out the door while the dog is calm.

Once outside, continue to completely ignore the dog. Wiggling, peeing, jumping, being vocal, dancing about - none of these behaviours gets a reward, and the reward is your attention. So you completely ignore the dog. If the dog jumps up on you, turn away. Keep your arms folded. Look everywhere but at the dog. Stand on the spot. Pretend the dog isn't there.

Again, wondering what's wrong with you, the dog will stop carrying on and stand watching you for a cue.

This quiet behaviour - the standing or sitting still, the calm - this is what you reward, with attention and a food treat (though a dog that pees in excitement when they see you is so driven by the need for your attention that you may not even need a treat).

Have you ever seen how a meter reader, or a handyman, or the postman, behaves towards a dog when they come to your home? They see lots of dogs. They've learned to ignore them. So they usually don't make eye contact, don't pat the dog, walk past it as though it's not there, ignore it, don't call it, don't offer it approval, don't even look at it.

THAT is how you need to behave towards your dog until he's doing what you want him to do, and the moment he's doing what you want him to do, THEN you reward him with attention.

Every single person in your house needs to do the same thing. Visitors to your home need to be asked to do the same thing. Ignore the dog. There's the dog, please ignore him, we're trying to train him to be calm and social without behaving like a mental piddling spinning-top whenever anyone comes in.

Socialisation will balance his exuberant excitement when he sees people as well, but the trick is to socialise him with people who are ignoring him. You may need to set up a system to allow him into your house - say the kitchen (easy clean floor!). Keep him on the lead in the house so you have control.

You'd follow the 'ignoring you' process to go outside and put a leash on the dog. Then bring him into a kitchen of people who totally and utterly ignore him. When he settles, which he will, YOU reward him with a pat and a treat, but don't make a huge fuss (because you'll just set him off again). The better behaved he is, the longer he's allowed to stay indoors.

The longer he stays indoors, the more calm and social he'll feel - he's genetically driven by thousands of years of breeding to integrate himself into a pack - so when you leave him outdoors on his own for hours, he's frantic to see you when you come home.

The plus side to having a dog that pees in excitement is that this is a dog that's very driven by your attention and approval, and you can use that to your advantage in training your dog. (If the dog didn't give a toss whether or not you gave it the time of day, you'd be stuck trying to find something to motivate it to do what it's asked.)

Thanks a mill for that,very useful.

And thanks to everyone else as well :)