Submissive Urination - A dog that rolls on its back, with one back leg raised and urinates is expressing submission towards someone it perceives as dominant. This behaviour is common in puppies and most dogs will grow out of it. An adult dog that urinates submissively should be approached in a less dominant posture e.g. don't raise your hand over the dog's head, crouch down to dog level when approaching, don't stare directly at the dog and talk gently.

Stress or Excitement Urination - Stress, fear or excitement may trigger involuntary urination or defecation especially in puppies. Usually the problem disappears with maturity but if it doesn't then systematic desensitisation to the triggering stimulus should be employed.

Territorial Marking - Usually practiced by male dogs who deposit small amounts of urine at frequent intervals. Bitches may sometimes engage in territorial marking but in both sexes it happens when a stranger, be it dog or human, 'invades' the animal's territory. A reduction in the dominance of the perpetrator may help. Some cases respond to hormonal treatment or castration. The owner can increase dominance over the dog by:  

	Reducing social interaction with the dog. Stop petting, patting, talking to the dog. By being ignored the dog perceives the owner to be more dominant and the reward is greater when the owner does respond.
	Only reward the dog when he's submissive. Getting the dog to sit before you give him what he wants is the easiest way of making the dog submissive.
	Do not allow the dog to take up dominant postures e.g. paws up, sitting on lap, lying on the bed.
	Have a daily session of obedience training. In these situations the owner is clearly dominant and the dog learns automatically to respond to commands.

Faulty Learning - Dogs may urinate or defecate regularly in the house in certain special places because they have never been taught not to. Urination and defecation is triggered by both the scent of the favoured place and by certain conditioning stimuli e.g. exercise, feeding, sleeping. It follows therefore that to prevent house soiling:

	The 'scent' left by a previous soiling must be eliminated thoroughly with diluted bleach or a biological detergent.
	The stimulus for elimination must be recognised and action taken to ensure that the dog is taken outside at the right time.

Reward the dog when he eliminates outside in the correct place. 

Learn to recognise when the dog wants to go to the toilet and make sure the dog can get to the right place.

Whenever the stimulus is mis-timed and inappropriate elimination seems likely e.g. when the dog sniffs around indoors, the dog must be quickly rewarded for his achievement and taken straight outside.

Elimination in the owner's absence - This may occur at night when the owner is in bed or during the day when the owner is out at work. The problem could be due to either:

	Faulty Learning - see above. The dog has learned to eliminate in the owner's absence since if it does it in the owner's presence it gets told off. Remember....so reward good behaviour but don't punish bad.
	Separation Anxiety - Inappropriate elimination is an example of the 'high excitement state'. The dog is anxious at being separated from its beloved owner and reacts by emptying its bowels or bladder. This behaviour is triggered by the same mechanism which makes dogs destructive when left alone. In this case the problem of separation anxiety must be resolved.

Elimination during the night - A normal dog should not need to defecate or urinate during the night. The dog should of course be exercised last thing at night and should not be fed within two hours of this last walk. If this fails to prevent the problem then there's probably a separation anxiety issue that could be cured by allowing the dog access to its owner's bedroom.

If this fails, the dog may have faulty learning. To solve this problem the owner will need to wake up when the dog gets up to eliminate. This can be done by fixing a cow bell to the dog's collar or attaching a long lead to the owner's wrist. When woken the owner should get the dog to lie down before taking it outside. By lengthening the 'lying down' period it will eventually be possible for the dog to go through the night.

Old Age Incontinence - When dogs get old, they might not be able to wait for long periods and previously well house trained animals will have accidents when restricted from their usual toilet areas for lengthy periods. Old and senile animals may also become lazy and choose to go to the toilet near their beds i.e. in the house rather than get up and struggle the long distance to their favorite toilet site. Old age incontinence can only be tolerated, not cured.

Incontinence in the Bitch - A few bitches, both spayed and entire, develop urinary incontinence in middle or old age which usually responds to hormone therapy. Usually a patch of urine is noted when the bitch gets up after lying down. Care must be taken to differentiate this problem from cystitis or bladder infection where bladder irritation causes frequent posturing and passing small amounts of urine. A urine sample is helpful for the Vet.

Polyuria - This is the veterinary term for an abnormally high urine production. Obviously, if your pet's bladder becomes full more quickly than usual it may be forced to urinate indoors if left for more than a few hours. Polyuria is associated with increased drinking; it may be useful to measure water intake over 24 hours.