Hi all, looking for some advice regarding my gorgeous new addition Anya. She is a 17 week old GSD puppy. We collected her on friday from her breeder, she was kept a bit longer as the whole litter were being run on to pick the best for the show ring. She is absolutely wonderful and very well behaved BUT she wets herself whenever we touch her. She is not a nervous girl, if she comes to us she will except a fuss but if we touch her first she pees. I try my hardest to not touch her unless she comes to me but its difficult, ie lifting her out of car, putting her outside for a wee, as soon as I bend down to touch her she sits or lays down and wees. I did notice when she was at the breeders treats we thrown through doors to get the pups to go where they were needed, so perhaps were not handled a lot. (No disrespect to the breeder, I have a lot of respect for her and I know Anya would of had the best of everything). Also she was reared in kennels and now lives indoors so lots of changes for her, but I want to know how to deal with this so I can nip it in the bud before it becomes a bad habit. I've started to throw treats too but wonder if this is the right thing to do? She has to get used to being handled. I have booked her in at the vets to rule out infection, but wondered if anyone else has had the problem and how I should deal with it. Its very frustrating because except for this she is spotless in the house, not one mistake.

I would not make a big deal and fuss over her since that will cause her to pee- better to just take her out let her do her business and let her come to you- with no fuss at all... Eventually when she is dry try a fuss outside to see if she will still pee but it took Tiva about a month to break that habit.

Tiva use to always pee when we came home or had friends came over- I asked our friends to just ignore her and not fuss over her and allow her to come to come to them and when they did this she eventually stopped.

Take her outside and just lay with her, pick her up talking in a soft voice not a hyper one, pet her, play with feet, pick her up, do basic training with rewards of treats, praise, play ball-tug which ever- Iam sure she will stop...

Good luck :-)

Thanks for the reply. Anya and Tiva sound very similar, Anya also does it when we come home and with friends. I'll will keep ignoring her until she has settled down and see how it goes. She is a very clean dog in all other ways so it hopefully it won't take too long, as its very hard to ignore a happy puppy 1st thing in the morning!!!

Just remember that excitement or nervous peeing is not a "habit" per se - it is a natural submissive response and your pup cannot control it.

You have great advice already not to make a big deal of her when first greeting.  Also, do not stand over her - looming over a pup even to pet them can be intimidating. 

I got my Rudi when he was 1-1/2 years old and he was a nervous pee-er too.  He was an x-show dog and never exposed to a normal household; so he had a lot of adjusting to do.   We learned to greet Rudi before we entered the house to avoid wet rugs and floor.   Now though he will only pee a bit if I have been gone for a week or so - and I get *darn insulted* when he cannot muster up enough excitement and stays dry!   LOL

I bet she is a lovely puppy and ever so lucky she has you and your famile.