Advice about submissive wetting - Page 1

Hi Everyone, I am new to the site but I have been reading through the forum and see there is lots of experienced people here and I have a question that I was hoping to get an answer for. 
 I have a 9 month old show line female GSD and I am having a problem with her, she seems to be a submissive wetter. It has been going on since I got her at almost 7 weeks and it seems like it starts to get better but doesn't.  I have followed all the advice about ignoring the behavior and not looking at her and etc but it doesn't seem to be getting better and as she is getting older the puddles are getting bigger. It is quite frustrating because even when I try to work on obedience with her, as I give her a sit command she pees. She is not abused or neglected, she gets plenty of attention and we go to different places to train. She does well in class (as long as nobody pets her) but this seems to happen more often at home. I haved only owned 2 male dog and never had this problem, is this something that gets worse before it gets better and stops or is this something that will never stop?
Does anyone have some other advice that may help?

have you had her checked by the vet? Have a pee test and a blood test to make sure there isn't an underlying issue.

make obedience more fun......work with her away from home....

I  think she needs a very thorough check up or even go to specialist.  

"She does well in class (as long as nobody pets her)"

She may just have a very very soft submissive temperament.  I see people blaming this and other things on abuse, when in fact it is genetic, and there is not much you can do about it except an " only positive training" approach and pretty much walking on egg shells around  her.
I agree with  having the tests done to rule out a urinary tract infection or whatever, but if that doesn't show anything, then you may just have a weak tempered dog.

Do you tell her no when she piddles or get angry? If you do this will also prolong it. I would just concentrate on fun, fun, fun and keep training short and upbeat:)

I would stop doing obedience with her until she "grows up " ;In other words, develops mentally ,physically, and comes into heat ( hope you haven't spayed her since that tends to extend the maturity time frame and therefore the submissive wetting is extend). When a bottom of the pack female feels threatened, she will wet as a message, "look at me pee, I'm not challenging you". So, as she matures and circumstances change, she moves up in status and stops peeing for every one approaching. In her mind it is a challenge by you when you are practicing obedience or when anyone "pets" her. I have "rehabbed" a few submissive wetters for clients, including one GSL and one WL, all had started it as baby puppies. By the time they had their first heat at ten or twelve months, and were only treated like play mates letting them pretty much just be dogs, no obedience training, they had quit and were then able to be trained and acted perfectly normal.

Thanks for the advice so far.

I have already had the urine and blood test done and there is nothing medically wrong with the dog. She is not spayed yet and she went into heat right as she turned 8 months so I guess I could wait and see. We only practice positive training because she is only a pup and it is fun for her, I don't even use a prong because she can't handle it. I actually think I paid way too much money for such a soft dog. I am actually quite disappointed, I bought her to compete in obedience and this is very frustrating.
Would it be wrong to return her to the breeder for this issue or is this something that I would be wrong for considering?

I had a submissive wetter (GSD) and it does get better with age. What I found is that excitement also brought about the wetting. I did ignore him and when I did that it did get better. He also didn't pee when I was doing obedience. It did get significantly better at about 1.5 years. I had him neutered at 6 months. Did you socialize her and get her lots of new experiences? Have you tried confidence building activities with her?

When you bought this dog did you let the breeder know that you wanted a dog specifically for obedience? If so then I do think you could ask for another dog however, it will all boil down to what your contract states. Keep in mind that often times the breeder will want to the dog back. If you are okay parting with her (and possibly not knowing what will happen with her) then you should talk to the breeder about a replacement dog.