What is happening is that your dog is "talking" to you, using body language. Usually they will show you their bellies first, then pee a little. Sometimes they will pee standing, but their ears will always be back, and they will be giving you loving looks.

This language, translated, means, "I love you, you are The Boss, I want to please you." So you can see that being punished or scolded is very, very confusing to the dog. It will only get worse as he/she tries even harder to convey that message!

So, as I said, the cure is to ignore it. A quiet "hello," followed by an excited clapping of hands and a command (such as "sit"), will get the dog out of the submissive posture. Then praise him/her, let him/her out or walk him/her, and clean up afterward, when the dog is outside or no longer associates the puddle with the greeting. Your dog will gradually learn that it is not necessary to greet you with submissive urination, and the behavior will gradually disappear.

Occasionally, there exists a dog that never quite gets over it. This dog will still greet long-lost special friends with a puddle. Again, scolding does no good. Washable throw rugs by the front door and a roll of paper towels handy will help keep your sanity. Remember that it comes from love, and don't punish it!
 

THEY JUST DON'T GET IT
Some dogs are much harder to housebreak than others. There is usually a reason for this. Puppies purchased from pet stores have usually been bred in puppy mills. In both places, they are usually kept on wire mesh. This allows the excreta to fall through, but it stays just underneath them until somebody cleans it. They never get away from the smell, so they become accustomed to it until it means nothing to them. Have you ever had to spend considerable time in a room with a bad smell? Your nose gradually gets used to it, so that you don't notice it any more. This is what has happened to your dog.

The worst of the mills keep wire cages stacked on top of each other, so that the excreta falls on the poor litter below, and below, and below, so that these poor pups are soaked in it.

Rescued dogs may have been kept in filthy conditions also. All of these dogs need to learn to appreciate being clean. This entails alot more work than the average housebreaking.

This dog needs a crate or confined area large enough to let him/her get away from the filth, but small enough to be relatively easy to clean. For small or medium dogs, a large crate will work; for large dogs, a small bathroom. Put something absorbent down, such as newspapers or old towels.

This is where you put the dog when you cannot watch. It should be cleaned as soon as possible after the dog "goes" in it. If the dog soils itself or smells bad, it should be bathed as soon as possible.

The point is to keep the dog free of the smell of its own filth. The more you do this, the sooner the dog will become UNaccustomed to the smell, and it will become something it doesn't want to live with.

Example: You leave the dog in the bathroom when you go out. You get home; the bathroom stinks, the dog stinks. Clip on a leash, take the dog for a quick walk, praising lavishly any elimination. Come back. Keeping the dog close to you, clean the bathroom matter-of-factly. You can say, "Eww, what an awful smell" and such, but don't aim it at the dog. Then bathe the dog. While you are toweling it dry, tart sniffing, and saying, "Aah! It smells so much better!"

Dogs are very, very good at reading body language. This whole process that I have described shows the dog, through your body language, that the smell of body wastes is to be avoided. The harder you work at this - the cleaner you can keep your dog - the sooner he/she will realize that being clean is nice.
 

ASKING TO GO OUT
Some dogs haven't figured out how to ask to go out. They are probably giving you subtle body language that you don't or can't see. Perhaps they just walk around nervously; perhaps they sit quietly beside the back door.

The main symptoms of this are: you find the pile or puddle later. It is either right next to the door through which the dog usually goes out, or as far as possible from the main room (where you and the dog spend the most time). In the first case, the dog is trying to get it as close as possible to the "right" place. In the other, the dog is not hiding from you, as you might think, but keeping it as far as possible away from the main living area, in an effort to be clean.

Train the dog to ring a bell! Hang some kind of bell from the doorknob, at the dog's nose level. Every time you take the dog out, pat the dog's muzzle, then push the bell to make it ring. Immediately open the door. If your dog will not resist, gently push his/her muzzle into the bell. (Some dogs dislike having their muzzles handled.)

Once the dog learns that the door opens when the bell rings, you will have to be patient. There will be a period where the dog is experimenting, to see if it's really true that the door opens every time the bell rings. You will have to nsure that it does, which means you will have to take the dog out alot more than normal. Some dogs will keep this up much longer than others.

Listen to your instincts; let them tell you when it is all right to tell the dog, "Wait."
 

SUDDEN LOSS OF HOUSEBREAKING
If your dog has been fine in the past, but suddenly is leaving messes for you, he/she is reacting to something. The first step, of course, is a trip to the Vet to find out if it is caused by a physical problem such as a bladder infection.

If there is no physical problem, then look for changes in your life. The most common cause for the dog forgetting its manners is a sudden change in the amount of attention it receives. Did a household member move out? Have you started a second job? Are you studying or on the computer at night, instead of being a companionable couch potato?

Your dog figures any attention is better than none, and knows it will get attention if it makes a mess. The solution, of course, is to give the dog more attention. I recommend taking the dog for a walk; a nice long one when you get home from work, and/or short ones when you take a break from the computer. You can use the time for training; you can teach the dog tricks.

Just so the dog understands that you are giving him/her individual attention regularly.

copyright 1996 Ruth R. Clark
alowandogs@aol.com