When you notice that your puppy is urinates all over the floor whenever it becomes aroused, intimidated, or excited, you may have a submissive urinator on your hands. One thing that you have to keep in mind is that this is not the fault of the puppy, no matter how embarrassed or frustrated you get because of it. Puppies who are naturally shy or timid, along with puppies that have owners who are intense or yell a lot are subject to end up with a lot of submissive urination.

This is not an uncommon thing in puppies but the thing is, it can be rather messy and it can carry on over into adulthood. Most of the time, puppies or dogs will get overly excited when there are loud noises, when they are being scolded, when there are arguments between people in the house, when guests arrive, when you arrive home and even when there is an over abundance of affection when you greet each other after being apart.

Before you can learn how to address this problem, you have to understand why dogs do this. You are the master. You are the pack leader – the alpha. It is the “job” of the puppy or dog to show that they are submissive to you. This is what causes a dog to avert their eyes if you stare at them in the eyes. It is also what causes them to roll on to their backs and urinate all over the floor. The puppy is showing that it is submissive to you and that you are the boss of the show.

The first thing you want to do is to have your vet check out your puppy to rule out any possible medical problems that could be causing the extra urination. If the puppy comes back with a clean bill of health then you have a pup that is urinating to show his submissiveness to you. Now it is time to fix the problem.

One thing you can do is to down play your greeting with your pet when you first come home. You will want to make sure that friends and family are doing this as well. Either simply give your dog a little “hello” or ignore him completely until he calms down and then you can greet each other.

Putting a limit on how often your dog drinks water will help with this although it will not completely control it. At best, your submissive urinator will tinkle just a little. In addition, while you will continue to remain in control, it is important to make sure that you are building up the self confidence of your dog. Praise your puppy when he does things that meet your approval. Show him that he is loved and that he is a good dog.

The more time you spend working on this problem, the less frequently it will happen. This is something you have to be patient with. There is not a cure for this as it is a natural reaction for the puppy but it is something that you might be able to help get under control.

Many people have been led to believe that the only ways to potty train a puppy is through the use of pee pads, newspapers or going directly outside. The thing is though, many smaller breeds can greatly benefit from being trained to go inside a litter box or litter pan. In addition, since small breeds have tiny bladders, they are able to relieve themselves much more often than if they had to wait to be let outside. And yes, this is something similar to what a cat might use but it is going to be a little different.

There are already made litter pans for dogs or you can create your own by taking a cat litter box with a lid and cutting off the roof of it. This way, your little dog will have some privacy with the three walls and have the extra head room to make it easier to use and easier for you to clean. There are dog litter products on the market that clump around the waste making it easy to clean out the dog waste. There have been people concerned about puppies that might eat their waste and eat the litter though. Because of this concern, many people will use pee pads or newspapers on the bottom of the litter pan.

You will train your small puppy to use the litter pan as his bathroom, just as you would with training him to use newspapers on the floor. You want to make sure that you are keeping a very close eye on your puppy in the beginning of the training. This will ensure that you can catch your little puppy before accidents happen. In order to help make sure that your puppy’s potty training experience is successful, you want to help him out a little.

Make sure that your puppy does not have free run of the house. When you are not able to keep a close eye on the puppy, you want to make sure that he is confined to the room where the litter pan is. This might be the kitchen or a large bathroom or utility room. You can restrict the puppy’s access to other rooms by closing doors or installing baby gates.

You will want to make sure that you clean up the litter mess each time your puppy goes. Dogs do not cover their urine or stools like cats do. You do not want to deal with the smell or your puppy walking through the mess and then dragging it through the house. Keep cleaning supplies such as paper towels, bleach and water mixture in a spray bottle, a broom, garbage bags, and a garbage can nearby. In the beginning, it is very likely that your puppy will make a little bit of a mess with the litter. Once he gets the hang of it, he will be fine.

When you are potty training a puppy, one of the first things that you are going to realize is that the puppy is going to have accidents in the home. If you were not aware of this before you brought the puppy home, you are sure to learn it right after. Puppies, just like human babies, are not able to control their bladder or bowls. When they need to go, they need to go whether you are there to instruct them to a location or not.

Because of this, puppies will end up going to the bathroom somewhere in the house. It may be right out in the open or he may try sneaking behind the table to do it so you cannot see. Of course, you will find it though and oh what a mess it can be. One thing to remember is that unless you caught your puppy in the act of going to the bathroom, you cannot scold him for it. He will not be able to associate you being upset with something he did ten minutes ago.

What you can do is address the odor that is left behind to make sure that he does not continue to go in that location. Once a puppy has “marked his potty spot” he is likely to return to that same spot out of instinct. Remember, this is out of instinct and not because he likes to make you unhappy and force you to scrub the carpet. He finds his spot because of the scent that is left behind. Sure, you might have cleaned up the mess and scrubbed the carpet, but did you really get rid of the odor? Maybe you cannot smell it anymore but your puppy might.

It is important that after you scrub the carpet, you are neutralizing the odor. This way, your puppy will not smell his previous potty location. This will help you tremendously when it comes to getting your puppy to the correct location to do his business. However, just how do you neutralize the location?

The best thing to use is a vinegar water solution. This would be fifty percent water and fifty percent white vinegar that is placed in a spray bottle. Spray some of this lightly on the area where the puppy went potty. This will neutralize the area. Then, you will want to spray the rest of the carpeted areas throughout the house where your puppy has access. This will act as a deterrent which means your puppy will be less likely to urinate or defecate on the carpet.

You will find that by being proactive and keeping an eye on your puppy that the training process will run smoothly. Just make sure that you are cleaning up any and all messes right away. When your puppy does go outside, make sure that you are following it up with a lot of good praise so that the puppy will want to repeat the behavior.

Many people find that once they get into potty training their puppy that it is much harder than they thought. The thing is though; it really does not have to be. As long as you are following a few basic guidelines and keeping a strict schedule, your puppy will be potty trained in no time at all.

One of the biggest mistakes a pet owner can make is being inconsistent. You have to make sure that you are keeping affirm schedule in the beginning. Sure, life throws you a curve ball once in a while but while that puppy is still learning about potty training, you have to do everything you can to make sure that there is a schedule that is being followed. Once the puppy grows up, there can be a little wiggle room in the schedule because the dog will have more control over his bladder.

Think of your puppy just like a baby. Babies cannot control when they go to the bathroom, but older children can. Make sure that you are only feeding your puppy and giving him water at certain times of the day. You also have to make sure that you are taking the next ten to fifteen minutes to make sure that your puppy goes outside after he is done. This will ensure that when the food and water finally passes through, the puppy is in the right place at the right time. Basically, you are setting your puppy up for success and he will love you for it!

You will want to make sure that two or three times in between meals you are taking your puppy out to go to the bathroom, just in case. Of course, when you are not home, you need to have someone else come to the house to let the puppy out.

Even though your puppy may not have just eaten, there is a good chance that he has to go pee. Do not scold the puppy if he does not go because maybe he does not have to. However, do make sure that you give treats and praises for when he does go to the bathroom. This will encourage him to at least try every time you take him outside.

You should also have a strict bedtime schedule as well. This will help the puppy adjust to a routine. Make sure that you are again letting him outside for any last minute business.

Do not be surprised if you wake up in the middle of the night to the sounds of a whimpering puppy that needs to go potty. Instead of being angry you were woken at up 3am, be happy that your little puppy was trying to let you know he needed to go out.

 With the help of the strict schedule and as your puppy grows older, you will find that the middle of the night potty outings will become less and less.

Some people tend to believe that their dog should always have food and water available. This way, the dog can get his drink or food whenever he feels like it. There are a few reasons why this is not a good idea. To start with, puppies should never have an unlimited supply of food and water all day long. Puppies have a hard enough time as it is trying to learn how to be potty trained for their master and they certainly cannot understand the concept of restraining themselves from drinking or eating so that they do not have any accidents.
 
When a dog or a puppy eats or drinks, there is only a short amount of time between finishing and needing to go to the bathroom. An adult dog that is trained may be able to hold it for an hour or so, but we cannot expect puppies to do that.  If the puppy is allowed to have food and water while unsupervised, such as while you are at work, there will be accidents. And the last thing you want to do is to scold a puppy that couldn’t help it, especially when you set the puppy up for failure.

Positive reinforcement is what works best with dogs, especially puppies. They want to do good for you and you do not want to clean up a mess every day. You want to set your puppy up for success by having him on a regular eating schedule.
 
You will want to give your puppy a breakfast, a lunch and a dinner. Sometimes, for growing puppies, they might need a little snack on their dog food towards bed time as well. Your puppy will also need water with his meals as well. During hot days, your puppy will need additional drinks of water.
 
Try your best to set scheduled times to feed your puppy. This will give him a routine that he can count on and it will ensure that you do not forget a meal for your pup. Also, a scheduled meal time means that you will have more control over when the puppy goes to the bathroom and does his business.
 
After your puppy has eaten his food and had his fill of water allow him to play or hang out for about five minutes, but keep a close eye on your puppy. When those five minutes is up or when the puppy starts to appear as though he needs to go, take the puppy outside or to the pee pad for potty time. If you want your puppy to eventually go outside for potty time, it is best to start him off that way instead of trying to transition him later.

Depending on how quickly the food and water is moving through the puppy’s system, which usually only takes about five to ten minutes, you may have to wait outside with your puppy. Once your puppy does his business, make sure that you are giving him positive reinforcement with verbal praise, a kind voice, and a loving pat on the back. Go directly back inside.

As your puppy grows into an adult dog, you still want to keep the regular eating schedule but it will take about fifteen to twenty minutes before your dog has to relieve himself.   

Some people prefer to have their puppies go outside right away when they begin the potty training process. Others find that they like the idea of paper training followed by training the puppy to go outside.

There are benefits to both. If you train your puppy to go outside right away, you do not have to deal with the messy papers and cleanup. However, if you paper train your puppy, he will have a place that he is allowed to go to the bathroom should he not be able to make it outside. Since puppies cannot hold their urine or stools for very long, this is a great way to potty train a puppy.

One way to do this is to select an area where the puppy will mostly be kept during the training period. This is typically the kitchen for many households as it has the hard floors that are easier to clean and less likely to ruin. You can use newspapers or puppy pee pads that you buy at the store.

If you are going to use the newspapers, you might want to lay a plastic sheet down under the paper in order to prevent a huge mess from spreading all over the place. You will want to make sure that the papers are away from the area that you have set up for the puppy to sleep and eat.

You will want to lay out many pieces of newspaper or pee pads in order to make sure that your puppy has enough room. After each meal or drink of water and then several times throughout the day, take your puppy and place him on the papers and tell him “potty” or “papers”. Pick one command and stick with it in order not to confuse him. When your puppy does eliminate on the papers, make sure that you are kindly praising the puppy. When you praise the puppy right away he will associate going on the papers with getting affection and approval from you.

As the puppy gains more and more control over his urine and stool and he is able to aim a little better, you can reduce the size and the number of pieces of newspapers that you have to have spread out all over the floor. As time moves on you can slowly move the papers towards the door until your puppy is going outside to do his business.

Remember that consistency is the key with potty training. Before you know it you will have your puppy fully potty trained. It might take two weeks or two months but as long as you keep at it, the time will come when your puppy is fully trained.

While many people would love for their puppy to catch on to the house rules right away, it does take some time. Puppies are of course not born with an understanding of the rules and they certainly do not come with the capability of understanding right from wrong”. Puppies only learn what is right and what is wrong from responses that he gets from you.

Puppies are not able to learn the same as people. The only reason a puppy has any desire to alter his behavior is because he wants to please you. To do his, he will take cues from you as to whether what he is doing is right from wrong. The problem starts here though because many people end up trying to correct their puppy past the time that it would have been effective.

The only way your puppy can connect your response to the behavior you want changed is if you are correcting him the moment the bad or wrong behavior takes place. If you get home from work and realize that your puppy tore apart three magazines, four rolls of toilet paper, two and a half pairs of your favorite shoes and went potty on the carpet, there is no need to start scolding your puppy. He will not connect your response to the things he did two hours ago. Simply put, if you are not catching your puppy in the act of the unwanted behavior, you cannot correct him for it. All you would be doing is confusing your dog.

So, that covers how you have to be immediate with your responses but there is another issue to tackle and that is consistency. Just as you would with a child, you have to make sure that you are correcting your puppy each and every time he gives bad behavior. It does not matter if you are on the phone, talking to the neighbor, or trying to rush out the door. You have to be consistent with your corrections or they simply will not take hold. If your puppy is only being told “no” half the time when he is running around with a shoe in his mouth but the other half the of the times you seem to not care, then he is led to believe that when you are scolding him, it can’t be because of the shoe.

This means that during your puppies “training” period, you have to be very consistent. If your puppy pees on the carpet, correct him and do it each time you see it. Training a puppy, especially the potty training part, is something that has to be consistent every day and all day long. You cannot train one day and then “rest” the next. If you do that, you will not be teaching your puppy anything. If you are consistent, you should see good results in no time at all.

Dogs are pack animals. They naturally look to a leader to know how to behave and what to do. A good leader rewards them for this by never hurting them, shaming them or misleading them. So does a good owner.

Here are a few simple ways to show your dog you’re the leader:

1) You eat first. Feed your dog after you’ve eaten dinner or lunch or whatever.

2) You control going in and out. Make your dog wait until you’ve stepped out the door. Then let them follow you. Also do this on the way in.

3) Do not necessarily give your dog attention every time they want it. Alpha dogs – leader dogs – give out attention as a reward. This means that if you are in the middle of something, and your dog nudges you for attention, stay focused on what you are doing.

4) Do not let your dog sleep in your bed with you. The dog should not ever be on your bed unless they are invited. If you have a dog that has strong alpha tendencies, you may have to pass on even the invites.

5) Do not yell at your dog; ignore it instead. We humans tend to make a lot of noise and give a lot of attention when we’re angry; wolves and dogs ignore the offending party, or at the very most go into a low growl.

6) Make your dog work for everything. Just asking them to sit is enough. Make them sit before treats, before petting, before being fed.

More dog behavior problems are caused by lack of exercise than anything else. Dogs that don’t get enough exercise are edgy and unfocused. This not only makes them more likely to get into trouble but also makes them harder to train. As the dog trainer in my puppy school class said, “A tired dog is a good dog.”

How much exercise is enough? It depends on the dog. Here are some common signs of a dog that’s not getting enough activity:

- pacing

- whining for apparently no reason

- running along the fence, possibly barking frantically as people or other dogs pass

- chewing, shredding or otherwise destroying things

- almost never lying down even when everyone else is lazing around

- constantly being underfoot & wanting attention, also desperately so

If even one of those symptoms is showing, your dog needs more exercise. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. If you’ve got a backyard, try throwing a ball 3-5 times twice a day. If you don’t have a yard, then get to a park. If you go to the gym, try to take your dog out for a 1-2 mile jog. Even once a twice a week is a fine start.

If there’s no possible way you can get your dog more exercise, seriously consider finding the money for doggie daycare at least once a week. Twice is better. Some doggie day cares are run out of people’s homes, and these tend to be a bit cheaper than full-fledged commercial address businesses. Usually an in-home doggie caycare is around $15, and a commercial address daycare is 20-$25 a day. If you buy packs of 10-20 visits you can cut that price by up to 30%.

City dogs may have it a bit tougher. If their owners can’t afford dog daycare (which can be $30+ a day), even getting a dog walker can run $25 for half an hour. In New York city’s upper east side, the going rate is $35 for half an hour’s walk. If $25 for a walk isn’t going to work, get friendly and ask a neighbor, a student, or someone who’s out of work. Sometimes $10-15 is enough motivation to get someone to talk your dog out.