Bizzy Pee'd right in front of me!

Hey Angi,
HELP! Bizzy (my female Schipperke) just pee'd right in front of me... not sure what to do. Juno, my other female Schipperke and Jolly, my male Chihuahua were on the floor. Juno was trying to get Jolly to play, but of course he wanted nothing to do with her and was getting pretty vocal about it, telling her to back off. Then all of a sudden Bizzy comes over and pee's right in front of us all! I jumped up and told her NO, and took her outside. She JUST had a medical work up last week including a urinalysis, so I know its not an infection. What the heck to do?

Deb, Juno, Bizzy and Jolly


Oh Deb... I told you to come to my Body Language Seminar last month!
What I suspect was going on was a calming signal, from Bizzzy directed towards Juno and Jolly. Juno was bugging Jolly so Bizzy (as the more assertive female in the group) offered a overt calming signal (urinating in their presence) to settle and calm the two of them. Remember dogs offer calming signals to not only calm themselves but to calm the others around them. By urinating she appeased the situation of Juno getting in Jolly's face. Your response of telling her NO, did not help the situation, but don't beat yourself up about it... it was a typical response. But do know that black dogs on average use more overt calming signals than other dogs. Black dogs realize certain body signals cannot be seen as easily by other dogs (by trial and error), so they use very obvious ones, more than other dogs.
Best thing to do next time is to anticipate a reaction from Bizzy if the other dogs were getting out of hand. Offer a calming signal yourself first, like body block and head turn to appease the situation before distracting the dogs to move onto other things. Bizzy will see you have taken care of the situation and will see no need for it to escalate making her need to address it.

Oh, and I am saving you a spot when we do the seminar again on 9/25!