I am a veterinarian that takes my dog, Dodger, a Husky-Shep.1 yr. old to work, everyday. When I got him as a puppy, it took a while to housebreak him and he was a submissive urinator.
The submissive stuff is gone, but he has an annoying habit of urinating a little spot on the cage wall if we take our kennel dogs out to urinate first before him. Unfortunately I can’t discipline him unless I catch him in the act. He has done it only one or two times at home, luckily.
I do have kennel dogs that are paper-trained so he can smell the other dogs’ urine. Any suggestions? Thank you. Grace Chang, DVM Dear Grace: Thanks for the e-mail. It’s hard to say. But I can tell you this:
1.) I wouldn’t correct the dog for this behavior. Obviously, if he didn’t have any compunction about urinating in the crate, he’d simply let loose and make a real mess.
But the fact that he is only urinating a tiny amount suggests to me that he’s just getting excited and accidentally letting a little come out. And it’s more than likely that he is NOT even aware that this is happening. In which case, you cannot correct him for it.
2.) Since the culprit is more than likely the combination of the dog’s excitability AND having the urge to urinate, you can work to eliminate his manic state when he sees the other dogs get taken out by walking past his kennel run with other dogs at various random times. (Basically, a process of desensitization.)