Hello,
My dog has a recurring problem. When he gets nervous in the house, which is often in the early morning when my husband is getting ready to leave for work, he pees. Or sometimes when you're playing with him. He's a year old, maybe a little older.
Scene 1:
My husband, Terry, wakes up and goes out to the living room where the dog is. He sees his sunglasses on the floor (he works outside so they're important), and crouches down next to them while saying in an angry tone, "what happened to my glasses?" The dog jumps up onto the couch and pees on the couch, then, as he is rolling into his submissive posture on his back, pees right in my husband's face!!! Terry starts yelling, and the dog hops off the couch and runs all over the house, peeing.
It happened again this morning. . . Scene 2: dog peed a little on the couch. No one knows why! We got upset, and tried to take the dog outside. He peed the whole way outside.
This has to stop. It's driving me nuts, mainly because of how Terry handles it. He gets angry, yells, strikes the dog on the nose, and drags him by the scruff of his neck outside. Drags him. He says that he isn't striking him, that he is just tapping the dogs nose to show him it's wrong. Is this right? What do we do? I haven't had a dog since I was a young girl; I don't quite know how to train a dog. I just wonder if there is something in the way of positive reinforcement. I've heard to follow the dog out when he goes to pee and congratulate him, but our dog pees on the perimeter of the property, where we like him to go, usually.
Any advice would be great.