As well as my German Shepherd I have a German Shorthaired Pointer who is 17 months old.  He is still quite a big baby.  He is not very sure of himself and is dominated by most adult dogs we come accross.  We took him to puppy classes and he would not play with the other puppies but loved seeing all the people and the new toys.  If a puppy came over to him he cried out.  He did get better though.

We have two other dogs with whom he plays really well and we go to quite a few dogs shows with him so he has seen lots of other dogs but is still quite scared.

At home when we tell him off, with the usual No! his reaction is to sit and look down very sorry for himself.  The other day we had an electrician come to the house and as he is slightly over loving to people we shut him and the other dogs in the bedroom.  My husband went in after about 15min to get them out to find our GSP on the bed having a wee!  I am not sure what this is about as I don't know if it is dominance related or something else, I am at a loss.  He was toilet trained very quickly so it was not that and he has NEVER done anything like this before.

Has anyone got any ideas on how to build up his confidence around other dogs and what this weeing incident was about?

P.S. We have started taking him to do a bit of agility just for fun, so he has to mixed with other dogs and try to get him to be more confident.

Some dogs, particularly those who consider themselves lowly, can use this as an expression of their concern over the change of circumstances (in this case a stranger coming into the house and 'doing stuff').

Re building his confidence around other dog - take it slowly, very slowly.  Get an idea of what sort of distance he feels 'safe' at, and praise him for not showing any 'wimpy' behaviour, then slowly (over a period of weeks rather than days) encourage him to decrease that distance.  Keep the atmosphere 'light' and fun, don't resort to babying him, as this will be seen by him as rewarding the behaviour.  Don't expect him to change his views in a short time.

Thanks for your reply.  I think he possibly does consider himself to be lowly, in the dog world at least.  He loves people though thats why is was odd, we had to shut him away as he kept trying to force the electricien to give him a cuddle! (Yes he is strange!)

At home is is fine with our other two dogs and our friends dogs that he knows, he follows them round constantly.  He is fine when he sees a few dogs and sometimes starts haring around liek a mad dog to play with them but then all of a sudden he meets some dogs and is on the defensive, cries and then legs it!

We have started taking him out on his own in the forest where loads of dogs go for walks and just letting him approach the other dogs but not saying anything when he panics we try to ignore him totally.

If he's not too scared to eat or respond, use some "classical conditioning" and give him very tasty food treats when other dogs even appear on the horizon, or are anywhere near him. With luck he may start to associate other dogs with good things in life and get a bit more relaxed .... it's just one trick you can try, anyway :)

Lindsay