It can be frustrating if your house-trained dog pees out of excitement when you come home or guests visit. If this is the case, you may have a dog who has an excitement or submissive-based urination issue. While it can be frustrating, it’s often involuntary. So if you’re wondering why dogs pee when excited or scared, here’s what you should know:

Why Does My Dog Pee When They’re Excited?

Dogs that pee when excited tend to be young or overly hyper. These dogs may not yet have full bladder control despite being house-trained. It happens more frequently in puppies and as dogs mature, they tend to outgrow this behavior. Of course, a few do not.

It can also happen if your dog is surprised. For example, if you come home during their naptime and they wake up and are so excited to see you, they may experience what seems like potty training regression. Dogs can become very animated in these situations and may pee out of excitement.

Signs of Excited Peeing in Dogs

When a dog pees out of excitement, they don’t necessarily take the stance they normally would when they are outside going to the bathroom. They typically will pee while standing, jumping around, or walking.

There are many types of dog body language to know and it’s important to recognize them to catch signs of excitement. Some dogs may jump around, whine or bark, or raise their tail when excited. They may also wiggle their butt.

Dogs may even shake out of excitement and this can be one of the reasons why dogs shake. Knowing the signs of excitement can help prepare you for knowing when your dog might pee out of excitement.

How to Stop a Dog From Peeing When Excited

It’s important to talk to your vet first so they can rule out any health problems that may cause your dog to pee uncontrollably. If health problems are ruled out, you can start addressing your dog’s behavior. There are a few things you can do to help your dog stop peeing when they are excited:

1. Add in More Walks

Going out for more walks throughout the day gives your dog more opportunities to go to the bathroom if needed and also ensures they do their business outside rather than inside. A dog that has an empty bladder won’t have anything to pee out when they’re excited. To help your dog enjoy walks, remember to let them sniff plenty. This is just one of the useful dog walking tips that can make things easier for you and your dog.

How Long Can a Puppy Hold Their Pee?

Once a puppy is about four months old, they should be able to “hold it” for up to an hour for each month of their age. In this case, an average 4-month-old puppy should be able to hold their bladder for up to four hours.

Hypothetically, at six months, an average puppy should be able to hold their urine for up to six hours, but this is not recommended. It’s not even recommended for adult dogs to hold their bladders for over six hours even if they are capable of doing so.

Go For Walks As Often as Needed

These calculations are not meant to be recommendations for how long to wait before the next walk. They are more of a maximum limit to keep in mind with the goal being to take your dog out sooner than that maximum and as your dog needs to go. Some dogs will need to go out more often than the average and that’s OK; every dog is different.

Puppies and older dogs usually need more frequent bathroom breaks and certain medical conditions also require dogs to have more frequent walks and bathroom breaks. If your dog is peeing out of excitement, you may want to ensure more bathroom breaks.

If possible, you should be taking your dog out before then as it is not recommended to wait more than six hours. Not only can “holding it” longer increase the risk of accidents, but similar to humans, holding pee for too long and not being able to go to the bathroom can lead to UTIs in dogs and other issues.

2. Stay Calm

If your dog pees out of excitement, don’t yell or react. Calmly clean up the mess and take them outside immediately. Be sure to praise them for using the bathroom outside so it creates positive reinforcement for going outside.

3. Ignore Your Dog When They’re Excited

Ignoring your dog’s hyper behavior might be hard to do, but it’s one of the ways to help calm a hyper dog. It can be hard not to greet your dog when you come home from work or running errands. However, if your dog pees out of excitement when you come home, it’s important to eliminate this trigger.

Act calmly when you arrive home. Move slowly and talk quietly, even avoiding eye contact if necessary. Take your dog outside, let them urinate, and then bring them back inside. Once your dog has calmed down, then you can calmly greet your dog. This is also a good tactic to try with visitors. If possible, alert your visitors and let them know to ignore your dog at first.

4. Keep Your Dog Well-Exercised

A well-exercised dog doesn’t typically have the energy to be overly excitable. An overly excitable dog can be one of the signs your dog isn’t getting enough exercise. Managing your dog’s energy level with proper exercise that is appropriate for their breed and size can help stop excited urination.

Make sure your dog participates in activities that provide both physical and mental stimulation. These activities include vigorous walks with lots of sniffing opportunities, agility training, and plenty of fetch. Just make sure things stay low impact for puppies. High-impact activities can damage growing and developing bones and joints. Your vet can help you determine some good options for your puppy.

What is Submissive Urination in Dogs?

While dogs tend to grow out of excitement peeing, submissive urination may occur in dogs of any age. It’s more commonly found in younger female dogs, especially if these dogs have had their behavior corrected harshly.

It’s important to know that submissive urination occurs when a dog feels that a person or a situation is dominant over them. This doesn’t always mean a dog has been abused.

Submissive urination often occurs when an event triggers a submissive response in your dog. This can cause a small amount of urination as a sign of stress. Signs of submissive urination can vary from dog to dog but there are a few signs to look for.

Signs of Submissive Urination in Dogs

The most common signs of submissive urination in dogs include exposing their belly, hanging their head low to the ground, or even crawling towards the person they feel submission to. Often, dogs will pee while lying on the ground, belly up, with their tail tucked between their legs. They may even drool a bit.

Submissive urination can be triggered by a stranger approaching the dog and the dog lies down and pees a small amount. Or, even a small sudden movement toward a dog may result in submissive urination. They most likely will hang their head, back away, lie down, and pee.

How to Stop Submissive Peeing in Dogs

Of course, it’s not ideal when your dog struggles with submissive peeing. If your dog is struggling with submissive peeing, there is some behavior you probably will need to change.

1. Approach Your Dog Differently

If your dog is peeing in submission around you, you may need to approach your dog differently. Avoid making eye contact with your dog. While eye contact is important in building a bond with your dog, in these cases it can also be a sign of dominance and trigger submissive urinating. You don’t have to completely ignore them, just look a little past them or focus on their forehead or their shoulder.

Also, don’t loom over them or try to hug them at first. Try making yourself as small as possible. This might mean getting down on the ground with your dog. Let your dog come to you when they feel confident enough. Reward them with pets or treats to encourage building their confidence. Make sure to pet them under their chin and not on top of their head.

2. Desensitize Them to Triggers

After you’ve worked on approaching your dog in a different manner that discourages submissive peeing, it’s time to desensitize your dog to triggers that can cause submissive urination. Before you can do that, you need to be able to identify the situation that causes submissive urination.

Do they urinate when guests visit? If so, it can be helpful to give your guests tips on how to approach your dog. Lay out the same steps mentioned above. Encourage them to enter your home calmly and quietly. It can even be helpful to have them ignore your dog at first. This allows your dog to approach them when they feel confident enough.

If your dog can approach your guests calmly and without peeing, let your guest reward your dog with a treat. However, make sure your guest calmly and quietly gives your dog a treat without making a big fuss. This helps encourage confidence in approaching guests.

Another option is to keep your dog in a separate area from the guests. However, make sure this area allows your dog to be able to see who’s visiting. You can section off a part of your kitchen or in another room with a baby gate. This allows your dog to adjust to the idea of a guest in their home. This is also a helpful tip when preparing your dog for holiday guests.

Once they seem comfortable, let your dog out and have your guest follow the same process as above. Emphasize calm and gentle tones, but nothing too over the top. And of course, reward your dog’s behavior with a treat and plenty of (calm) praise.

It’s important to remember that your dog doesn’t intentionally pee when they’re excited or feeling like they’re in a submissive situation. Managing these behaviors takes a little bit of work and training, but it is possible to see improvement. However, if this behavior continues, you may want to seek help from a training professional.