I'm posting this story because I think it will make you laugh AND feel better about what you go through with your dogs, lol.
When I got Luca from rescue, he had a serious problem with submissive/fear based urination. So many things were triggers that scared him into thinking he was going to be abused, and then he would pee. Stuff like eye contact, loud noises, touching his tail or his neck, etc. etc.
The thing about Luca is that he can hold more pee than any dog I have ever encountered. It's like a camel, I don't know where he stores it all. He can pee continuously in a heavy stream for at least 30 seconds (my friend clocked him) and then pee several more times on a walk.
So needless to say I was being very careful about not doing anything to trigger his fear-pee reaction, because I was tired of cleaning up the sofa and carpeting in my little apartment.
After a few months, he got more confident and was peeing less. But at this point, his confidence turned immediately to aggression. SO on the one hand, he would still pee submissively if I acted dominant, but since I was trying to avoid him peeing, I wasn't being dominant enough with him. He would lunge at other dogs and similar aggressive behavior. Outside, I had no problem correcting him. But when we were inside with the wall-to-wall carpet, I hesitated to assert dominace. The worst was rollovers - he would not roll on his back and freaked out if I turned him over.
I talked this over with my trainer, and he said, "Look, the aggression is the far more serious behavior. You have to assert your leadership. If you are afraid of making him pee, you are sending the message that you will let him get away with stuff. You just have to respond to his aggressive behavior, and forget about the peeing." He insisted that the rolloever was the way to show Luca who is boss - and to not let him up from a rollover until he submitted.
OK, I resolved to follow his advice. A few days later, Luca snapped at my other dog and took away her toy. I responded immediately by grabbing him, rolling him onto his back and kneeling over him, as my trainer taught me, holding him down and making eye contact.
So he squirmed and squirmed and as he squirmed, he peed uncontrollably. He had a full bladder, but I had to follow my trainer's advice and not let him up. As I held him down, he sprayed a steady stream right at me, and it seemed like it would never end. As he kept squirming, he was swinging 'the hose' back and forth so it got everywhere.
My jeans were soaked from the waist to the knees. My underwear was soaked. My crotch was soaked in pee. My shirt was soaked. My bra was plastered to my chest with urine. I had dog pee in my hair. Luckily I dodged getting it in my face, but the smell of urine was overpowering. I felt like I'd fallen into a vat of dog pee.
Eventually, Luca made eye contact and submitted. Then I let him up slowly. And immediately ran to the shower!
I had to do the laundry twice, and I ended up throwing away my underwear. It was hard to peel off my body. There was pee dripping off everything. I was in the shower for a long time. It's really hard to get dog pee out of long hair.
Then of course I had to take Luca for a bath, and I had to rent a steam cleaner and clean up the carpet.
The training technique did work, and that was the last time Luca tried to bully my other dog. He also realized that I wasn't going to torture him when I rolled him over, and he calmed down considerably about rollovers after that. Now I can roll him on his back and he just gently relaxes and lets me.
Not long after that, I moved to an apartment with wood floors!
