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A mentally unstable... dog?
Since this is the greatest animal-loving community I can think of, I'll talk about it here.
Namely. I just got back from walking my dog with my friend, and something happened that really got to me. We were sitting on a bench, and a man with a dog came by. His dog wanted to play with my dog, but my girl did as she always does - hid under the bench, behind my legs, and then jumped up on my lap when the other dog was away for a split second. She was always afraid of other dogs, of some people, of walking up the stairs, getting out of the elevator (she has no problem with going down the stairs, nor getting into an elevator), she is afraid of sounds, barks when the phone rings, refuses walking through some streets and next to some people, afraid of CD-s, lighters (just lighters, I do not mean fire, but literally lighters as an object), USB sticks, my hoop... And million other things. I always justified it by saying that it's her personality, and nothing more. She's also really hyperactive, BTW. She runs around, plays with me and my friends, run in circles, and is the only dog I've ever seen drifting (as a car, Tokio Drift kind of a thing.)
But the man with the dog that came by tonight has experience with dogs and knows his stuff, and he told me my girl is mentally unstable.
It really got to me, I'm afraid I might have done something to trigger/intensify it, and I'd die if that's the case.
What I want to know if any of you has/had any animals like this, and what do you recommend? I would not have a problem with her being unstable, don't misunderstand me. I just want to know if there is any way for me to help her. I kinda made peace with the fact that I'll never be able to have her puppies (having a dog that close to her is unimaginable), but I see she really wants to play with other dogs, but is too frightened to do so. (What she does is get all excited when she sees a dog, and she runs after dogs and makes sounds to call them, but as soon as they turn around and get close, she starts running away.)
I have had her for two years now, I got her when she was 10 weeks old, so there are no bad experiences with dogs, or stairs, elevators, lighters, CD-s...
Anyhow. Is there a way for me to help her overcome her fear(s) and play?
I definitely am overprotective. I was much more so before, I have loosened up a lot over time, but I still have to work on it. I'm that way with mybrothers, with my friends, dogs, everything and everybody. Except for myself. :D
Dogs are just afraid of weird shit. Your dog considers lighters and CDs to be weird shit, for instance. My dogs consider those things food, that's not all that fun either.The other day at the park I tried to walk past some "maze-fence" with my dogs (it's the type that prevents bike riders from entering) and they freaked the fuck out. They acted like I was trying to force them into a meat grinder or something. I just pushed and pulled them through and then when I went back through later they had no problem and just walked along perfectly.I'm certain there's no "maze-fence abuse" in their past, particularly because I bred a few of them myself. Just something they haven't seen before and it naturally caused them to avoid it. Now if I would've picked them up, or thought "Well nevermind, I'll go find another way" that would've reinforced that behaviour and the next time they would've freaked out even more.It sounds to me that you're so freaking worried and cuddly lovey dovey with your dog that it reinforces fearful behaviour. Drop the mommy attitude and the dog will automatically act less stressed.Dogs also have different personalities and your dog might just not like dogs she doesn't know. Mine are like that, they'll usually avoid other dogs unless for some reason they like them. Don't even get me started on people, they are fearful of everyone except me. When children ask to pet them I'm like "Fine, if you can catch them" and they'll start hiding behind my legs and running to the other side when the child walks around me. So far they have been faster then every child. Never abused or accidents or whatever, and as puppies they got plenty of socialization with strangers. I like to think it's because they've figured out I'm pretty much the nicest guy ever and that it's pointless to hang out with other people. I can't say I blame them, I wouldn't want some stranger touching me either. (Well...unless it's a hottie with big jugs.)
Well, she does have two weird ribs, but I never thought of abuse since they are one on each side, andsymmetric. I'll take her over to the vet's to get an x-ray, to see if they were broken.
I've tried the sniffing thing earlier, but I think she gets even more scared if she feels restrained near another dog.
Thank you all for your input.
Justin, your pack is wonderful. My plan is to have my own pack someday. :D
SE, she sounds wonderful.
I actually love all that craziness in a dog, all of mine were a bit weird, that's kinda why I think I'm doing something wrong. I don't mind them being weird, I just want to help her overcome that fear.
u dont know that she wasnt tortured under 10 weeks
i had a dobeerman that was manuc depressant
smartest dog ever i would snap my fingers and she always knew exactly what i wanted like she read my mind (but didnt always do what i want right away haha especialy when it came to getting into trash cans)
i could never leave her home she ate through my door ate my leather sofabed and tore up my room the 1 time i tried
i also couldnt leave her on a leash if i put her on a leash she would go after anyone that came near but if i let her r=un free she was great with everyone..except junkies she hated that heroin energy and chased em onto the roofs of cars ..one she chased into an porta potty type thing and then flipped it over covering the guy in shit..nasty
and 1 day a guy that lived with us..who she knew ..who was an ex junky decided to use again and she went after him too
one day i was going over a freinds house, and she found a cat on the street twitching that was hit by a car..she sat there licking it while i ran door to door trying to find its owner..when a car came too close she gently carried it to the sidewalk and kept licking it trying to save its life
a week later i wasat the same freinds house and she ran out of the house being chased by her bf after a big fight..my dobe went chasing aftr and on the very same corner she tried saving the cat on..a van ran the light and swerved to hit her on purpose
anyeway..i probly didnt need to give u all the details but i suspect the guy who gave her to me was a junky in the past and was abusive to her
there are dog shrinks u can go to i dunno what they can do as far as therapy or medication but at least diagnosis might help u understand whats going on
We actually had playdates with a friend's Lab, but they did not go so well. Aska (the Lab) ended up trying to eat my dog's tail (it's all fuzzy and attracts a lot of attention, and the Lab would just grab the hairs, not the actual tail, there were no injuries), and my girl would hide, run away from the Lab, and so on. Business as usual. But she did bark at the Lab when she had enough of her nibbling at her tail.
I guess I'll have to work on it more. They keep promising us a doggy park in my town, so if it actually gets built this year, I think having her there often would help.
Thank you very much for your help, too. :D
She's a German Spitz (an American Eskimo, if you like), and she's middle sized, weighs about 4 kg (about 9 pounds). She was always extremely fond of people, she even runs after them on the street and wants to play.
As far as I know, she used to play with her brothers and sisters as a puppy. The day after I got her, I took her to the man that got her to my town, and her sister was still with him. The two of them played and rolled around as all puppies do. Her sister was taken by her new owners the next day, so we never got go play again.
I'm not sure she runs for sun, because she shakes really bad.
I have some photos of her last night with that other dog. In one pic, she is trying to smell that dog (which was really calm, not threatening at all. It even got on it's back to show her she does not want to be the dominant one.), and in the other, the dog got up, but it's front paws on my leg and tried to smell her, but my girl started going back, pushing into mystomach.
And she's on the leash because of the new law we have here, I'm not allowed to take her outside without a leash, and the leash has to be shorter than 1,5 m. But even when I do let her run without a leash, she hides under a bench or walks right next to me. When I out the leash back on, she breaks free and starts running again, as if she feels safer knowing I'm there holding her.
My female pit barks when a cell phone rings she doesnt like some kind of ppl she not very fond on other dogs but I think all of this comes from the ignorant bastard before me cause she was being raised as a bait dog.