104. BIOLOGICAL OR EMOTIONAL? Submissive urination in dogs - is there a cure?

"Must I put a parking coupon?" the young lady asked me. It was 10.30 am on a weekday and she had to get her Maltese vaccinated the 2nd time.

In the past month, the car park wardens had "thought out of the box" and had came for surprise booking of cars without parking coupons at 9 a.m. They tried to sneak in from various ends of the road and did have some successes. Previously they would come at 5p.m. They were out-sourced private corporate "wardens" and the office must have a brain-storming to get more bookings.

"The car park wardens don't come at this time," I assured the lady. She brought the puppy into the consultation room.

"My puppy pees when I pat her head or when friends come to visit me," she said. "Is there something wrong with her?"

"This is a case of submissive urination or excitation urination," I said to the surprise of the young lady who replied, "I do not know there is such a condition."

Yet this puppy did not pee on the examination table when my assistant Mark held her for vaccination. I have had submissive urination cases of puppies dribbling urine at the Surgery as well as at home.

"Is there a cure?" she asked.

"You have to train her to be confident," I said. "This condition is reported to be hard to cure."

"How do I train her?" she asked.

"When you go home, ignore her for a while. When your friends visit, ask them not to greet her. Do not pat her head or you will reinforce this submissive urination. Bring the puppy out to socialise with people and other dogs. It takes a long time to cure and many grow up without being cured."


IS SUBMISSIVE URINATION A BIOLOGICAL OR AN EMOTIONAL DISORDER?

Autism is believed to be a biological rather than a mental disorder. Is Submissive Urination a biological disorder?

Are there therapies that can help? So far, the dog books do not advocate more than what I had told the lady.

Today, I read in alternativemedicine magazine April 2006 issue about APPLIED BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS (ABA) which appears to work well for children who have Asperger's syndrome (a form of autism).

ABA is a set of behavioral modification techniques. Teach the child to learn the real world by breakind down tasks in simple steps. Reward the child with the tiniest success. Slowly the therapist weans him from the rewards as he succeeds in each task. The disadvantage is that ABA is time-intensive and very expensive.

For submissive urination in dogs, the owner may use alternative treatments such as the ABA's methods to see whether it is successful to cure submissive urination in the dog.

You will need to spend a lot of time gaining the trust of the dog and making her or him self-confident. Praise and rewards for small successes. Keep accurate records of the dog's response (no drops of urine). It is a trial and error as each submissive urination puppy is different. I don't know whether ABA's methods will work in the dog.


Autism Resources:
www.autismwebsite.com
www.autismtreatmentcenter.org