Just adopted a 2 yr old sheltie. She cowers when someone comes & pees on the floor. How can we break this?

I found this site, they might be able to help. I had a bitch that was a submissive urinator once and I was never able to break her of it, good luck to you!

Just give her a lot of love and attention. I was adopted by two dogs and the female was in the same shape. She got a lot better over time, but it’s going to take some time and a lot of love. But you’ll get it back many times over.

Arrange to have people come over to your house with treats. Have them stand sideways to your dog. Have them look straight ahead not at your dog (staring at a dog is a form of aggression). Put a hand out from their side with a treat in it. Talk softly to the dog.

At first, just have the person stay for a minute. Then gradually increase the duration. Just keep doing that until she starts to respond and will maybe take a treat. The see if eventually the stranger can pet her. Be patient and don’t yell at her.

You’ve gotten some great advice, especially from @marinelife.

It’s also very, very important never to punish her for this.

And thanks for rescuing!

It sounds as though your dog has been severely punished for misbehavior around strangers. This is very difficult to overcome and takes a great deal of patience and compassion. @marinelife ‘s recommendations are excellent.

well apparently you can buy plug in scent thingies that help to calm nervous dogs from the vet…couldnt vouch for them. My dog had a real fear of fireworks and gun shots and every nov 5th was completely inconsolable…she is not so bad now as she is older and we dont make a fuss about it…it sounds cruel but the best advice i got was to just behave normally and almost ignore them untill they calm down…if they see you making a big deal out of something it will only make them think it is a big deal…when people have left and the dog has returned to nomal then make a fuss of them.

give her treats – just little bits – when people visit – strangers or not. have them meet outside first, so she doesn’t pee in the house. good luck!

Maybe you could ask people to just ignore her completely? Poor little girl’s scared… if she feels like nobody notices her, maybe she will be calmer. I also adopted a submissive pee-er; he was about a year old, and had obviously been punished in connection with food. When I would get his food ready, he would be all excited, like you’d expect, but as soon as I put the dish down, a flood! And he would run away. And even though I never scolded him for it, I think he sensed my displeasure at having to clean up a lot of adult (smelly) male dog urine. We finally solved the problem by feeding him outside, where it didn’t matter if he peed. Once he got over it, we were able to move feeding back indoors again. He was a sweetie- I miss him.
Anyway, whatever you do, it will probably not be a quick fix… but I think the more you can keep things calm and low-key, the better she will do.

My dog used to do that (she was abused as well). We had to teach her “its okay”. We would give her treats and maybe pet her and keep saying “its okay” over and over really softly. Eventually she stopped but she is still very skiddish and afraid of loud noises but she doesn’t pee on the floor anymore. Every dog is different and i’m no Cesar but maybe this will help.