[adamevie]

How often does your GSD pee, or need to pee? I have a spayed girl, 17 mos old and I am getting worried about how infrequently she goes to the bathroom lately (or now that she is growing up, not sure which). She can hold it in all night until 8am or, I hate to say it, on occasion as late as 10am when I let her out. Even then she sometimes doesn't go !!!! -- or is more interested in trying to get a game of fetch going. Today she was in the laundry room (where she safely stays when we're not home) for 7 hrs, then DH came home and let her out the back door to go and she wouldn't. He put her back in laundry room, left the house, and when I came home (now it's got to be more than 10 hrs since she's last peed) she wouldn't even go outside to go, and even on a short walk outside she wouldn't go -- no pee, no poop!
I'm worried that it hurts her to urinate, and maybe she's holding it in for as long as she can? Maybe kidney stones?

 

[BlackGSD]

Is this unusual behaviour for her?
My 2 older dogs have "bladders of steel"! My old female has held it as long as 14 hours. She holds it close to 12 hours on an almost daily basis. I let her out in the morning when I get up and she usually just lays on the porch. She doesn't "go" until several hours later when I go out to feed the horses. My male heeler is the same way. Neither have ever had ANY Urinary tract issues. And with them being 10yo and almost 9yo, you would think if it was THAT bad for them to hold it that long, they would have had some sort of issue or infection by now.

 

[Strongheart]

My Jess can hold it forever too but then she goes out and pees and pees and pees. Rocky can hold it like Austin Powers and then he'll take a long pee like him too.

Could be your girl is dehydrated? It is summer and prime dehydration season. Does she drink enough? Do you feed her wet or dry food? Wet is the best you know, the organs need moisture. Anyway, she's awfully young for kidney stones but holding it too long can cause a UTI.

For Rocky, he has to run around for quite a while before he can loosen up enough to pee. And he can't poop while we're out there with him. We have to come in and leave him some privacy before he'll poop.

So it can be psychological too. Can you try exercising her enough to see if she needs loosening up?