The following is a question from one of our valued customers:

I have a 6 month old lab that we started out treat training, He was doing great until he hit adolescence. The come/here command began to become a chore which is mostly my fault for leaving him off leash. After watching the first video allot of that is cleared up now.

I do however have some questions which are:
1. Being a puppy he gets really excited when someone walks up, which usually results in urination. Is there any advice on how to get him to sit calmly to get petted by the stranger or advice on how to tell the stranger to approach. Another example every time we go to the vet they have to break the mop out. Don’t think he is nervous there they just get him excited.
2. I have worked with him walking on the leash and he sits fairly well. He does need improvement on the down command, should I jump to the e collar down. Not sure if I should have started with the obedience DVDs before the advanced e-collar.
3. Last but not least should I train by the DVD sequence and complete one task at a time before advancing to the next. Example, while working on recall also be working on place command.

Thanks again for the follow up. So far I am very pleased with the product.

Submissive Urination And Obedience Training

1- This is referred to as submissive urination (happy pee or excited pee). To deal with it you want to address the dog and the people greeting the dog:

  • People greeting. Have them ignore the dog. Don’t bend over the top of the dog. Avoid eye contact, high and low pitched tones. Have them crouch down and allow the dog to approach them rather than them getting in the dog’s space.
  • The dog. Work on the sit and/or down command. You need to have a dog that stays very well. Submissive urination comes from a ‘wild’ state of mind whereas obedience comes from a controlled and calm state of mind.

2- Yes, I’d use the e-collar to work on teaching the down command. Make sure your dog has an understanding of this command, though, before you start perfecting it with the e-collar.

3- Yes, you can teach several exercises at once. You don’t need to perfect one before moving on to the next.

Happy Training!

Related posts:

  1. Training Dog Collars
  2. Dog Training Obedience Formula