UPDATE..strange one..

[steelergrl]

My JRT is seriously unlike most other JRTs. She (Stitch) is fairly calm and only playful at times. She loves to lay in her bed and crate and she does fetch (but never returns) her toys. She does sometimes get excited when we play with her, but never anything too crazy. However, when my roommate (Robby) plays with her, she pees. Not a lot but definitely "sprinkles." It seems to be only with him and we can't figure out why. All he really needs to do sometimes is lean over and pet her and she tinkles. It has gotten to the point where he is afraid to pet her at all. Why does she only do this with him? UPDATE: The "sprinkling" is now getting out of control. It just seems to be with certain males- mainly my roommate and my brother. I really don't know what to do. When she does it, we punish her and then she pees more. I was told that it is just something that small dogs do, but I know other JRTs that don't do this. Please help before my whole house is covered in Stitch's pee. I want to call the Dog Whisperer..

[Genny]

Is he around her a lot? If she likes him and he doesn't spend a lot of time with her/or if she just doesn't get to see him much then she probably just gets so excited! My mom use to have a dog that did that. She was part poodle. She would do it when my uncle came over because she didn't get to see him often at all. just a thought!

[mike001]

Might be that she feels intimidated by him. This sounds like submissive urination. Maybe he should sit on the floor when he plays with her. No dog feels comfy with someone standing over them and your dog being so tiny, she might fear him a bit.

[critter crazy]

I know my MIL's dog piddles out of fear. But my firends dog piddles out of excitement, always on my foot!

[agilityk9trainer]

This sounds pretty classic for submissive urniation. Why your roomate? Well, Robby is a guy. Guys have lower voices than girls. In the doggie world, when dogs bark out of excitement, play or happiness, their barks are high pitched. When dogs bark in attempt to scare someone off, for example, their barks go lower. Lower means serious business and domination. Higher means play and fun. Your roommate probably has a lower pitched voice than you. To your dog, he is being dominant. Bending over the dog makes it even worse. Bending over a dog is a very dominant position in doggie non-verbal language. it's why you should never pet a dog you don't know well by bending over it or petting the head. You are saying, "I'm much more strong and dominant than you. You will need to obey me." You do that to an already dominant dog, and you can get bit!

In your case, your dog is acting just the opposite. By peeing, your dog is in effect saying, "Look at me. I'm not a threat to you at all! See, I can't even control my bladder. Why, I'm just a little puppy who can't control my bladder. You don't want to hurt me!"

Of course, this can happen without any negative response on the part of Robby. I'm not saying he ever hurt your dog. This is actually fairly common.

How to treat it? Well, first, Robby needs to not bend over the dog. Play needs to be pretty light and not too rough. He needs to watch his voice when talking to the dog. If he can, even going into falsetto can help! However, he needs to lighten and soften his voice up. Also, let him be in charge of all feeding times. Have him teach her a few tricks using treats and soft, happy praise as rewards. Don't let him give any punishments to her.

In the meantime, when he greets her or gives her attention, make sure it's on a hard, easily cleaned surface. Over time, this should disappear.

Good luck!

[steelergrl]

Thank you everyone for your help. It all makes sense. Robby is pretty tall, where I am only five feet (barely) and he does "hover" over her a lot instead of getting down on the floor and playing with her. When my brother plays with her, he usually gets down on the floor and rolls around with her so she probably does feel more comfortable with him. I will have Robby play on the floor with her and hopefully she will get more comfortable with him. She is a dog who loves to cuddle, so maybe I can even get him to cuddle with her a little bit.

[corgieguy]

I agree with agillityk9Trainer.. I had a friend who had a pup and even though I did not realize it, my voice must have seemed booming to the little guy, a beagle. Since anytime I came into thier house the pup would lay down flat and submissive. Then I would in my normal voice say something to the effect of 'Hows it going boy?' or something of the sort. And the poor guy would just almost run straight through a wall with to get out of there.. After this happened a couple of different times, I changed my tone, knelt down and called him over with a treat to get him used to me and slowly let my voice go back to normal... In a couple of visits I like that I could enter the house and lightly call him, he would then come to me I would praise and after that things where done normally..Just needs a little get to know and trust you time. (Robby)