If your puppy gets excited and wets herself, especially when you have company or when you first arrive from being away from her, this is called "submissive urination." This kind of urination is different from breaks in house training. Puppies often outgrow the problem as they do not have good bladder control. The older dog that does this may be lacking self-esteem.

Although dogs do not have the intelligence like a human in some areas such as being spiteful and mis-behaving, they do have some psychological aspects to their behaviors.

In a case such as this it helps if the owner will try to become deliberately less threatening. Avoid directly staring at your dog. Kneel down closer to his level rather than standing over him and encourage your dog to come to you rather than reaching out to get her. Your tone of voice should be soft and coaxing. Never, never punish a dog for submissive urination. Your dog is already submitting to you, "over-submitting," and you want to try and reverse some of this.

If any of your guests or family members have been agressive with your shih tzu, protect him and ask that they not approach him because of this problem of submissive urination you are experiencing with him.

It might be helpful to invite a cooperative friend or family member to sit on the floor and quietly talk with you. At first, ignore the shih tzu. If your shih tzu has not urinated at this point have the friend or family member speak a few words very quietly and gently to the dog, but from a distance. If the dog still does well, repeat the exercise the next day. If things still continue to go well, ask your friend or family member to pay just a bit more attention to your shih tzu and get just a little bit closer to him. Continue having these sessions, gradually increasing the visitor's and your contact with the dog. If the dog urinates, backtrack and reduce the time spent. As the dog matures submissive urination should get better and as the shih tzu learns he does not have to be extremely submissive to you.

Tips On Sanitation:

The best way to pick up and dispose of dog feces in an urban area is to scoop it up with one of the many pooper scoopers available and put it in a freezer type bag, then tie it closed or simply flush it down your sewer system. With small dogs such as the shih tzu the stools are small and even smaller and less if you use a good quality dog food like HealthyPetNet Life's Abundance All Natural Dog food and treats. If you are out walking, you can carry along paper towels, or a hand full of toilet paper to do the actual picking up (and you probably want to keep some plastic gloves handy for this purpose as well). Carry along some hand sanitizer to clean your hands afterwards. There are commercial products you can purchase, or you can use freezer bags or the bag your newspaper comes in. In some areas there may be rules against putting feces in your trash. In this case, you can flush it down your sewer system or....after you have tied it in the freezer bag and placed it in another sturdy trash bag, this should be enough to keep the odor away and use a good quality dog food like HealthyPetNet Life's Abundance All Natural Dog Food to keep the smell of feces down. That way, your garbage pick-up people will be less likely to complain if the odor is contained appropriately. Remember to wash your hands many, many times throughout the day when you live with pets and use hand sanitizers. Always wash your hands before you eat or do anything with mouth or nose contact. I keep hand sanitizer in the pumps out all over the place so that I can quickly pump a scoop in my hands and then as soon as possible I also wash my hands with a good anti-bacterial soap for at least two minutes each time, scrubbing under my nails and up on my wrists. You should advise all children in a household with pets to do the same.