Question:
Angus Dog is male about six-seven years old. In the past week,
he started getting what I can only describe as panic attacks
(like during a thunderstorm) soon after everyone in the house
has gone to bed.
Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Is there any clues on what is
wrong with him?
Answer:
Something similar happened with us. We very recently rescued a border collie
mix from a pound. This dog is a young adult (about 2 years), and seems
to have had a bit of a hard life; there are some residual orthopedic
problems from trauma, such as an arthritic knee and imperfectly healed
fractures.
The dog is friendly, affectionate, etc. and has been much more sedate
than I had been warned of when friends heard I had a border collie. He
is not destructive around the house, is housebroken, does well with children,
etc.
The first night we were at home, we tried to keep the dog in the
first floor by putting up a child-fence on the stairway. We heard a
lot of whining early in the night, and then a crash around midnight.
The dog suddenly appeared at the foot of the bed, plopped down,
and fell asleep. He had managed to partially break down the barrier,
and had climbed over the remains. All of our attempts to keep the dog
away from us at night were met with resistence, ranging from whining to
harming furniture trying to get around or through barriers.
Since this was the *only* time the dog was a problem, we decided
not to fight it. We let the dog sleep on a blanket on the floor
in the bedroom.
It's natural for dogs to want to sleep with the rest of their pack.
Unfortunetly he's training you to let him up eveytime you give in. Probably
too late now.
How come your dogs aren't allowed upstairs? If it's for allergy reasons I'd
suggest you get a small room air filter for your bedroom.
Could it be that something is going on in the neighborhood. Something that
is causing a noise that only your dog can hear? A noise he associates with
"bad things coming"?
MY dog has very sensitive hearing, She has trouble dealing with buses, ice
cream trucks , garbage day is pretty much a write off. I can't bring her to
my husbands work as in the back of the building there is machinery that
bothers her. She doesn't even like to walk at night, she gets nervous (I
think she hears too much then) Yet, I can vacuum up to her feet and it
doesn't bother her. Just not the same pitch.
Now to everyone that will say I need to work on her to get her over her
fears. Don't bother. I've gone that route. She is now 7 She is a
sheltie/whippet. Just plain a sensitive dog. I've also talked to the vet
about this issue.
