We adopted a lovely Australian Shepherd-ish dog from a rescue shelter. His name is Atticus (Atti) and he is wonderful except for a few quirks we are willing to work on. Only one that could be a big of a deal breaker -
He pees submissively when my husband touches him.
It’s so sad - he tucks his tail and bows his head and is obviously scared of him. He shyly wags his tail and when my hubby goes to pet him - pees.
We have tried not paying attention to him until he seems comfortable - that is not helping. The problem is I am going out of town for two months and my hubby will be primarily responsible. No good if he can’t scratch his head.
My suggestion would be to have your husband take the dog out to the garden and gently pat it’s sweet little head as it passes by each flower. Hey, it’s easier than toting a watering can around.
Seriously though, a pound puppy who pees submissivly and is instinctivly afraid of one person (usually a male and usually the dominant one, this is an important point) means that odds are this animal has been abused. Only time will heal the psycological wounds but, in the interem, here are a few suggestions.
Have the husband spoil the dog. Give it treats, treat it as the special creature it is, no yelling, no affirmative dicipline, nothing. If the animal needs dicipline it needs to be done by a more beta member of your new pack (in the animal’s eyes that would be you). Always respond to the dog with soothing tones and, if dicipline is needed, be calm but firm. Dogs are very good at sensing your emotions so you don’t need to scream at the pet to get it to understand you are upset, sometimes you don’t have to say a word.
Have the husband become more submissive than the dog. When ever he wants to play with the dog have him lie on his back and stay under the animal. In dogs this is a sign of trust and submission and the animal will relax around him.
Make sure your husband (and probably you for that matter) does not look the animal in the eyes, heck try not to look at the face at all if the dog is looking at you. Nothing says domination like a huge hairless ape-like creature giving someone the staredown.
During the adaptation period don’t worry about the soft treatment instilling new and unwanted habits and expectations. These can be corrected later when the human-canine relationship is healthier. Until then just be patient, Austrailian Shepards are awesome animals. Extremely intellegent, very loyal and very family (pack) oriented.
Good Luck,
N8
(Note, the source for this information is 40 years around dogs. I have been in the same situation many times and have personally used each suggestion successfully. My latest success story is with the Chug (chiwawah pug mix) we recently adopted. With her I used the reverse domination/submission technique. The submissive peeing stopped within a couple of days. Now if I can figure out how to make her less hyper, just slow her down a little bit, we’ll get along just fine. Until then I’m searching for Ritalin for dogs.)
nd_n8 has excellent ideas. I suggest you use a belly band during the adjustment period. The ones in this link are designed to be used with a human baby diaper, so you only need the one band and to change out the diaper as needed. I use belly bands on my boys all the time, but I need them for unaltered male marking territory, not submissive leaks.