Dog urinating when greeting people

Question

We have a 1 year 2 month-old collie/lab cross. He has a pretty manic/wired temperament so we have to work pretty hard to get him to calm down/relax.

Lately, we've been having a problem whereby he is urinating when greeting people - including myself and my partner when coming home from work.

The usual series of events is:

1. Hears me coming into house
2. Runs to top of stairs
3. My partner asks him to sit/wait until he calms down (This usually takes a minute or so)
4. Once calm, he is invited down to say hello
5. He gets very excited again when he meets me at the door, so I try to ignore him while he calms down

After about 5-10 seconds of hyperactivity, he hangs his head, puts his tail between his legs and urinates slightly.

We try not to make a big deal out of it - and we don't talk to him/tell him off when it happens - in the hope that it would resolve the problem, but it seems to be going on for quite a long time now.

Answer 1

You are doing the right things so far. Another thing to watch out for is eye contact. My dog does the same thing and when she greets people I ask them to ignore her and avoid eye contact. Sometimes even eye contact will be enough to make her pee when she is really excited and wanting the visitor to pay attention to her.

Once he is starting to calm down, but before he pees, see if you can get him to sit for you. That might take enough focus that it distracts him from whatever he is feeling when he puts his tail between his legs and urinates. Make sure you treat him every time he sits. Once he is sitting reliably then only treat him when he doesn't pee.