German Shepherd peeing when petted

The Shedder

Hi all, I have a working line GSD bitch with high ball and food drive. She is very excitable, and seems switched on overdrive all the time. I have had her since she was 8 weeks old, She is now 4 1/2 yrs old. She pees every time I pet her. She has always done this. it happens when I first meet her to take her out on walks etc. She is well socialised, and obedience trained.

Lately she has started banging her teeth together with the excitment as well as peeing when I pet her...

Any Ideas of stopping this?

DBB

Hi op,
I've a rubbish internet connection at the min, but here's a recent thread about that kind of urination that you might find useful, but bear in mind that as it's been going on a long, long time, it won't be as easy as it'd be with a puppy.
http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057219779/1/#post90622056

The teeth chattering is another symptom of her being in slight emotional conflict, she's excited about the walking but perhaps a bit unsure of things surrounding it.... Has she ever been given out to or otherwise punished for the inappropriate peeing?

The Shedder

I have never punished her for doing it. I thought she would grow out of it as she got older. She seems over eager to please. She did stop it for a while a few years ago...but just started it again. She would also do a lot of lip licking.

DBB

Sorry OP, as I said above I had rubbish interweb connection last week, but I'm back online now, so I wasn't ignoring you on purpose!
It certainly sounds like she's very sensitive, and getting pretty excited about going for walks... the teeth chattering and re-appearance of the peeing (which may not be "submissive urination", but "excitement urination"... the latter is the one the usually grow out of, but not always. Submissive urination can come about as a result of excitement urination being punished, and is more enduring particularly in certain circumstances).
I'd be inclined to do as advised in the link I gave you above... always stop petting her and walk away from her as soon as the peeing starts, and always make sure to adjust your body position, introducing your hands from below her, rather than above.
It would be great if you could start working on putting her usual peeing under command control, so that you can ask her to empty herself just prior to the situations where she problem-pees. Some dogs, particularly drivey, ball-mad GSDs, might be sent to retrieve their ball prior to greetings and lead being put on, as it helps to divert their brains onto something other than the walk or greeting, and consequent peeing.
I'm assuming there isn't an underlying medical problem here, of course. It might not do any harm next time you're with the vet to just get everything checked out with her if you haven't already, just on the off-chance there's a chronic low-level problem relating to kidneys, bladder, sphincter control etc which does not become obvious until she's under a little bit of pressure!
Good luck whatever happens, she sounds like a lovely dog (big GSD fan here ).

The Shedder

Sorry DBB, I forgot to get back to you. I started doing as you suggested, and it has improved the situation, but not totally cured it. I would say it is around 80% better. She whelped a litter 3 weeks ago, and it ceased completely...
So now I will wait to see if it returns.

BTW, She had 9 beautiful big strong pups...6 male.