Does he also do it when he's excited to see you?

 

Not that much. It's always when reaching to pet
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It may be a cycle.

Dog is so excited to see owner that it pees a bit, owner gets upset that dog peed so picks dog up and crates it, now dog is afraid of hands coming at it. Person goes to pet the dog, dog pees out of fear. The peeing is reenforced because every time he's petted he pees and every time he pees he's crated.

I'd get him fixed but for completely different reasons.

Counter conditioning is the only thing I really know of that would take care of the peeing, whether it's excitement or fear.

 

The dog IS scared. This is submissive urination.
The BF getting upset with the puppy is making the problem much worse!

People need to be much more calm around this dog, and learn that most things we "primates" do are pretty intimidating to a small dog, including petting, picking up, direct eye contact, being upset with the dog, using a firm or loud voice and so forth.

So the solution here is in the human realm. When pup is peeing or cringing or averting his eyes, he is indeed VERY scared, so modify your human behavior accordingly so as not to frighten the dog.

And to build his confidence, do some regular positive reinforcement training. This means speaking gently and asking for easy things such as "come" or "sit" and give the pup a treat. Make it a super nice experience. Its not about "commanding" the dog. Its more like "here is a chance to earn a treat!"

Things not to do
- don't reach out and pet the dog
- no loud or commanding voices
- no scolding
- no crating as punishment
- don't pick the dog up
- definitely don't be physical as a "correction"
- no direct eye contact
- don't stoop or lean over the pup


Things TO do
- use gentle, upbeat voice at all times with the pup
- invite the dog to you and give a treat
- touch the pup only when he asks for touch, perhaps by coming to your lap
- ALL touch is gentle and slow and delivered with love, never anger or frustration.
- call the pup and give a treat, consistently (if he does not come, then its because he's scared or has not learned the cue yet, so do not scold for this! you may need more trust before he will come willingly.)
- hand feed the pup any or all parts of his daily food... this is good bonding and trust stuff to do
- get on the floor with the pup and put treats or kibble near you or even on your legs for the pup to eat
- move slowly and gently around the pup
- basically, think of the pup as a scared wild animal, and behave as if you don't want to frighten him... that will get you somewhere.

 

Interesting. My friend has a toy poodle who also does this. Does he pee every time you touch him, or only when someone first comes home? If it's when you first get there you could try to ignore him til he calms down.