I have a spayed 3 1/2 year old GSD who has never peed or pooped in the house. Recently, a female neighbor, who also has dogs and is a pet-sitter, has started coming over to the house. Twice now my GSD has folded her ears back and peed the floor in front of my neighbor. She doesn't do that with anyone else. What's going on?
By Richard F.
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I found a very similar story to yours and it seems as if the answer is that your dog is submissive-peeing. He needs to have lots of going out and doing things, and this will get him to have a broader view of the world and things will not get so scary when he is just at home. At least that is the hope. Here is the link I read:
answers.yahoo.com/
Blessings,
Robyn from Tennessee
Is it possible to put your dog in the garage or outside when this neighbor approaches?
Robyn is right, this sounds like submissive behaviour. I had a GSD mix in the 70s-90s who did the same thing when certain friends called in.
This particular type of submissive behaviour is unfortunately usually fear-triggered.
In our situation, we finally figured out it was a body type that was causing the reaction. She'd been a seven month old rescue puppy and when we adopted her we were told she'd been very badly abused but no real details were given.
Apparently her abusers were primarily large men with facial hair-every time any man with facial hair and a muscular build came into the house she would crouch and urinate, then try to hide. The connection finally dawned on us and so my then husband tested it by growing a beard whilst out to sea for an extended time (we were active duty USCG at the time), and holy moly, the minute he got home and she caught sight of him she piddled and then ran.
The trigger can be anything, I've learned over the years. It needn't be gender or appearance, the trigger can be cologne, cooking smells, even tobacco smells.
You need to figure out if there is a chance your fur-baby was abused before coming to be your fur-ever-baby; the alternative is either she has been somehow made afraid of this new person, or that this new person is bringing in the scent of something that your dog finds deeply upsetting.
Since it is her home and not your newest visitor's, the best thing would be to not let this person into the house until you find out why your GSD is reacting this way. I certainly wouldn't try to force her to accept this person's presence.
If the visitor refuses to understand why you are meeting her on the front porch, that's another 'point against' in my opinion-if a dog reacted to my presence in that way I would backtrack out of there apologising for upsetting the dog in her 'safe place', to be honest. That this person who is supposed to be pet-friendly doesn't get it is a little worrisome, I would NEVER leave my fur-baby in her care if this is the reaction she provokes.
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