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<p class=MsoNormal>Been off the drool for a while, but I have to chime in on
the submissive urination thread. PLEASE don’t assume that every dog
who urinates submissively, or has other disturbing behaviors, has been
abused. I think it is a really big mistake to assume that abuse is the
only reason. Some dogs just do it because that is their personality. Trying
to anthropomorphize the behavior into an abuse history might do more harm than
good. Some dogs are naturally submissive, just like every wolf can’t
be the leader of the pack, some have to be followers and submissive. It
is natural. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>My personal story is that I have one dog who was born in my
house who is afraid of EVERYONE. While she is not a whizzer, Channy
barks, carries on and hides any time a stranger is in my house. She is
the smartest dog alive, except when she is in a stressful situation. Channy
has NEVER been abused. She has never lived outside my home. She has
been loved since she was pooped out. As a puppy I socialized her at every
opportunity, taking her to hardware stores and other dog friendly places.
She has been to both a basset picnic and a waddle when she was under a year
old, and she loved them both. Now I can’t take her out in public because
she gets completely stressed out around strangers. The way she behaves, you
would think that the dog had been dragged behind a bus. Not EVERY dog who shows
fear and submission has been abused. Some of them are just wired that
way. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Clover is my whizzer. Came to us at 10 weeks as a whizzer,
and didn’t stop until she was 6. Still does it sometimes at 12 yrs
old. She was never abused. She has also been pretty well
socialized, and likes people. A little timid, but not a cowering wreck like
Channy. Clover whizzes, Channy cowers. Neither has been abused. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Brutus is dangerous around strangers and might bite, so he
doesn’t go anywhere anymore, and wears a muzzle at the vet. His story
is a little different. I sold him to a wonderful home when he was about
13 wks old. They kept him for a week, found out that Dad was allergic,
and kept him two more weeks to see if they could work it out. Returned
him to me when they realized they couldn’t deal with the allergy problem.
I socialized him continuously (the family met us at the Lowes, and the kids
played with Brutie on the floor of the store) and continued to do that when I
got him back. One day when he was about 6 month old or so, we took him to
the local gas station and I walked him around while DH pumped gas. Brutus
was very popular with everyone passing by, even jumped up for petting on the
side of someone’s car and got some lovins. We then walked over to
the bank, where Brutus sniffed a car bumper, cowered and started
growling. When the man who owned the car came out, Brutie sniffed him,
then cowered and started barking while backing away. It has all been downhill
from there. Now he is protective to a fault, he gets scared, he wants to
bite, and I can’t trust him. It was like watching a switch get
thrown and suddenly he was not the same dog. Literally in the span of a
few moments between sniffing the car and sniffing the man, he changed. No
one abused him in my home, and I really don’t think that anyone abused
him in the family where he spent 3 weeks. Now I can conjecture that there
was something unhappy going on between the mother and the father in that home,
which started a protective mind set in the dog, and was triggered by smelling
something scary with the guy at the bank, but the dog has not been abused.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Before you think I am a bad basset mom, I have 3 more born
in my house who love everyone and are socialized the same way as the others. They
go to waddles and picnics, petco and the hardware store, and there has never
been a cross word toward anyone. Some dogs are just wired differently than
others. On the flip side, some of the friendliest and most outgoing dogs in the
world have come from horrible abuse situations. Some just have sunny
dispositions, and some have to learn to have them. Then there are my two
troubled kids that I can’t fix. Sigh… Love them anyway!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Gaylene
Opal-Deitering<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>My
passions do not replace my relationship with God, but are instead a reflection
of it!<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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