I have a 1-yr-old female GSD. She became shy several weeks ago even to people she'd been friendly with before. She'll pee submissibely if someone pets her. Ideas?

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for your nice email, we appreciate your business!

As for your dog, submissive peeing is something that may or may not ever go away depending on the dog and the experiences she has. I would not let anyone pet her, I would even tell people not to make direct eye contact with a dog like this. Dogs like this need structure and they need to know that YOU are not going to put them in a position where they feel worried and unconfident.

Socialization is merely exposing the dog to different scenarios, people and environments. It doesn’t mean that people need to touch your dog. I don’t let people touch my dogs as I want them to feel comfortable and NEUTRAL. I don’t want them worried and I don’t want them to be overly friendly. I would say NO to the Petsmart (or any other) daycare experience for a dog like this. It won’t serve any purpose that I can see, and may make her worse. I don’t ever want my dog interacting with other dogs or people when I am not there to witness what goes on.

If you have already done our groundwork program with her, I’d suggest it. If you have done it and let some things slide, I would re-establish this with her.

Ground work for dogs like yours, this is a confidence builder more than a way to control dominant or aggressive behavior. Dogs love to know what to expect, especially soft or unconfident dogs. Pack Structure for the Family Pet is the DVD that picks up where the article leaves off.

I would also direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the web site If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q&A's and posts on our forum.

There are a lot of results on submissive urinating and submissive peeing.

Cindy