I have had the male german shepherd since he was 8 weeks old, and it when he was about 4-5 months old that the problem started.  Everytime a man comes near him to give him affection...he wee's.  I thought that it was a 'pup thing' and that he would grow out of it but he is still doing it now.  He doesn't do it when any females go near him.  I have never raised a hand to him or hit him and have never shouted at him...only raised my voice to him.  I would be grateful if anyone could give me advice on this matter.

regards

Graham

Our rescue dog (about half GSD) did this for about 3 years after we got him - only when my husband came home from work. He did grow out of it eventually. The best thing is for your male friends to ignore him and perhaps wait until they are sitting down and a while has elapsed and he is calmer before they stroke him :) I don't think that it is anything to do with fear - just a submissive gesture.

Daisy

When dog hits puberty, there is so much testosterone intheir system that mother nature has to provide some sort of method of defusing a potentially dangerous situation with other adult dogs - the peeing is the method that has been designed for this purpose......

To see you through the worst of it, try and greet the dog in an area where the pee won't matter - the garden?  Get him to 'sit' and give a paw - this shows his *how* you want to be greeted.  NEVER ever tell him off, and try to avoid even commenting on it (hard I know) as he will pick up on your displeasure and this will lead him to doing it more - he thinks he hasn't done enough to please you, so more must be better..........  And avoid bending over him to greet him - can you give him an 'up' command so he can learn when it's OK to jump up to be made a fuss of? Clean up afterwards (out of his sight) with a solution of biological washing powder, and spray over this with white spirit (this will help break down the fatty acids that hold the smell, so he won't be able to smell it, and you certainly shouldn't if he can't)

My husband tried greeting our dog outside the front door etc for quite a long while - but what worked the quickest was just ignoring him and walking straight past him. The more attention he was given - the more he piddled :D After a few minutes hubby could then greet him without the puddle :)

Daisy

Thanks for all your replies, just one thing...he is kept in a cage while i go out...although not for long, so when i do comeback...and go near him, he is in his cage and starts to wee as soon as i go for the cage door. 

Do you open his door as soon as you get in ? If you do, then I'd try ignoring him for a few minutes - do something in the same room, then let him out, but don't make a fuss of him - just walk calmly to the door to let him out in the garden. If you already do this and he is still weeing, then I think that you'll just have to persevere until he's grown out of it :)

Daisy

My 8 month old BC does this, but it is entirely due to submissiveness and he was the runt of the little and very small for his age.  We just find that the best thing is for people to ignore him, we let him out in the garden and then he comes back in.  At first we just make a fuss but dont say anything and then build it up to talking to him.  He has got better but it does take alot of patience.

Claire

Pulsatilla can be very helpful in this situation; try using pulsatilla 30c x 2 a day for two weeks.

Tohme,

What is pulsatilla and what will putting a dog on it for two weeks do?   Yesterday I got a 16 month old Cairn.  He also piddles with excitement - which is something the breeder did not tell me about. 

I have a fully carpeted house .. so at the moment I am wondering whether or not I am going to end up telling the breeder I cannot cope with it. :-(

Stacey

Pulsatilla is a homeopathic remedy; it is used for many things, this being one of them.

This is not to say of course that it should not be used in conjunction with behavioural modification if appropriate.

Thanks Tohme, I assumed pulsatilla was a homeopathic remedy.  I was just wondering how a 2 week course of it could help with a problem linked to a mix of hormones and temperment, like piddling.

Stacey

Daisy,

Do dogs typically grow out of piddling?

Stacey

My dog certainly did :) He was a rescue and having GSD in him he is very attached to my hubby :) To start with, we didn't realise that hubby was not helping the problem by greeting him enthusiastically when he came home - hence copious tiddles on his shoes. Hubby then started greeting him outside the front door :) After a while we were advised that hubby should walk straight past him and only greet him a few minutes later when he had calmed down. This did make matters a lot better and he finally stopped all together after about 3 years :)

Daisy

Thanks Daisy.  I got a new dog this past Saturday (18 month old Cairn) and he tiddles when excited or afraid.  The breeder claims she did not notice and he "only did it once or twice before" when extremely excited.  I only half believe it. Especially because when she brought him to my home on Saturday I pointed out that he tiddled on the my driveway, which she claimed was excitement.  He was here the week before to see if he and my bitch got along - they exhausted themselves playing for two hours.  All her dogs are kept in a special area and had no access to the house/carpeting ... so perhaps she did not notice how often he did it.  :-(   Anyway, I'm starting to get attached to him so I guess I will put up with it.

Stacey

Hi

My friend has a GSD Bitch. Bella is 14½ months now. She also wee's when a man is coming around. In the beginning she also did it when I came, but I'm now a "part of the family". She still wees when my friend's bf is coming or if on visit with me, when my dad or brother comes.

We just make sure, that she's greated in a non-carpeted area, and have a towel lying nearby to wipe the wee away. And then we'll just have to wait for her to grow out of it.

Jeanette

Our boxer bitch widdles with excitement but mainly when she is greeted by women or children so i assume it is the high pitched voice that sets her off :-)  I hope she grows out of it as i sometimes forget to warn people and they are non too pleased.

My australian shepherd bitch has done this since the day we brought her home......... She was 3 years old yesterday and still does it.....
She just gets so excited when we come home or when people come to see her, she just can't help herself......... we had her spayed and it made no difference, it didn't get better nor did it get worse.....
The other thing is, that her mum does it too, at the age of 7 years. I also have a litter sister, but she doesn't do it....
Maybe in my case, it is a ''mad merle'' thing !!!!!! :D
Gabrielle x

our gsd did this, w let her out when we came in and ignored her and let her come to the  male instead of him go to her..shes fine now

Hi,
I've had my german shepherd girlie since 7 weeks old, she did this weeing thing for quite a while when greeting anyone that came into our home, she just seemed so excited to meet people.  I never acknowledged it to her, and I truly think she didn't even realise she did it.  I just kept the flash lemon wipes handy, and eventually she grew out of it.  She is now 17 months old and wee free.

I have an eighteen month old cairn bitch who has done this since day one when we got her at eight weeks old.   We have tried all the suggestions but she still does it.  I keep hoping she will grow out of it but at eighteen months she is hardly a young puppy.

Sue

When you say you've 'tried' all the methods - how long did you try each on for?  It takes some dogs a long time to realise that human body language isn't threatening :(

I'm still trying with the ignore every time someone comes in and then fussing her when she has calmed down.   She is o.k with me but not my husband or anyone else that visits.

Hi Sue,

My new Cairn is pretty much the same, although he only piddles with my husband.  If my husband ignores him -- and quickly walks to our slate kitchen floor -- he tends not to piddle.  However, I let Rudi (the Cairn) upstairs to wake my husband up.  Bad move on my part.  Rudi got so excited he piddled on the bed both times.  There was no body language from my husband -- he was trying his best to stay asleep and ignore Rudi.  :-)

Stacey

Digger,

Why would you assume that anything Sue did with her Cairn could be interpreted as "threatening" body language?Piddling from excitement is an involuntary reaction and there is no training that the dog needs that will correct it.  Training in terms of how people interact with the dog is the only management tool that will work.   The less excited the dog gets, the less likely it is to piddle.  It's not a submissive reaction. 

Submissive peeing is different than excitement peeing - although the product is the same.

Stacey