Submissive urinating

by Lindy
(Wellington, New Zealand)

Hi.

We have acquired a new family addition - a one year old rough coat JR. We have had her four weeks and are having quite a few problems with her urinating in the house.

At first (for the first two weeks) she was excellent at toileting outside - she uses the catdoor which she has constant access to. Then, over the past few weeks she has started urinating inside. At first it happened on our arrival home shwas super-excited and her bladder would let go. We thought we were winning by ignorning her on arrival home until she had calmed down and then giving her attention. However, I have a 5 and a half year old and a nearly three year old and the three year old keeps man-handling her and I wonder if this is also contributing as she is weeing now too when the little one comes up to her. They started off best of friends but as the weeks have gone by they are not seeing eye to eye. I am afraid to say my nearly three year old is too rough with the dog and naturally the dog snaps after a while.

We made intensive enquiries about this being a good choice prior to bringing the dog into our home. It was not a spur of the moment decision and we were advised by two different breeders that she was suitable for our family situation. She is a pure-bred and was a show dog up until two months ago. She has a lovely nature, so loving and cuddly but she is very submissive and this constant urinating is starting to damage our relationship.

Please, please any advise, help or comments, no matter how blunt would be much appreciated. As I say we did not do this without much research and advice from two breeders......