My friend has a black water bucket in their yard to let the dogs drink from, whenever my GSD goes over there, he spends most of his time splashing/digging in the water bucket, dipping his head in it, makin a huge mess (outside) and then rolling his head around the sand so he'd be covered in mud (I have pics if you wanna see LOL). He never did this at home, but he also tried to do it in the inside water bowl at my other friends house. When the pups got old (tall) enough (she has a great dane), the bowls went on a raised stand, my dog won't splash on it because it's not ground level.

Also, my breeder said "never fill the bowls too full because these dogs love to splash in the water" - how right he was.

Try raising the water bowl up high and don't fill it much, refill often, don't fill in quantity, hopefully your dog will lose interest when its an effort to do so. But as far as I'm concerned, it's normal behavior for a GSD.

The biggest mess he makes now is the water retention of his lips, walking away from the water bowl leaving a 20ft trail all over the floor. Sometimes I'll step on a wet spot on carpet n have to grab the black light to see if he peed on the carpet or if its just drool - he has been house trained since his 2nd week with me so I'm happy to report - its just drool <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

My girl does same thing usually when she is outside or gets excited inside. She will also drop her balls, etc....in the water and leave trails everywhere <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I have thought about putting a leash on her inside and giving her a correction when she plays in the water but she doesn't do it that much, and besides, she is only an 8mo old pup <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.
Good luck.

My pups have a habit of sticking their paws in there after they're finished drinking and knock the container over!!!!

It took about 600 NO's to finally get them to stop doing that!!

our GSD Female Loves water as well, must be a German Shepherd thing becuase her puppy is the same way. inside the house she doesnt play in the water but we refill her outside bowl a million times a day, she splashes the water out repeatedly. we keep a small childs pool outside with a small amount of water so she can have her fill of water, not sure how to stop the water splashing, we've tried telling her no many times but she looks at you like "But Im sooo hot" and ya feel like a heel for telling her no.

Sometimes you might as well just give in....http://www.sleddogcentral.com/ check out the picture!
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Whenever I see the kitchen floor covered in water - I just think about my friends Doberman that pees in the water bowl after he's done drinking whenever other dogs are around, it makes it not seem so bad <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I have a female GSD who does the same thing and the only thing that works for her is to give her less water in the bucket. (I stop at the halfway mark and just have to check it more often.) She is ten now and if someone else gives her water and forgets not to fill it to the top, she will dunk her head all the way under the water line.