My dog behaviour freaked me out

I was playing with my 6 year dog Gaspar in a room that belonged to my grandma, she passed away in 2007, my sister sleeps there now. As i was playing with my dog on the bed he suddenly jumps and becomes startled by something invisible.

He looked at the ceiling and the walls for a long time like he was trying to catch something in movement with his eyes. i said what's up boy, what's wrong, it looked like he was in a trance just looking around and he was shaking. i didnt see any cobwebs nor spiders or flies that could cause it.

It really freaked me out, he has never done that before.

reply to post by Picollo30


Hi, thanks for the thread.
It's not unusual for dogs to behave this way after someone dies. The dog can also hear things you can't there could have been sound bouncing around that you could not hear but the dog could.
See if it keeps happening,

Usually they do not get freaked out if it's a ghost of a person they knew.

reply to post by Picollo30


Perhaps he was having a mild epileptic seizure. That happens.

My cats have always stared up at the walls for no reason even though the only thing that died there was my older cat almost a decade ago now.

Thanks for sharing though

reply to post by Picollo30


My dog has actually been acting really weird as well, it's freaking me out, and I'm at my wits end with her. I don't know what do do to calm her down.

No, I'm not about to make some snotty comment, I am dead serious. For about a month now, maybe a tad longer, as soon as the sun starts to set, she starts going crazy. She refuses to go outside to do her business. If you leave it, then she does it in the house, which is very unusual for her. She came to us, already trained, we adopted her from husky rescue see, and we've had her for almost three years now. So when I say, it's very unusual for her, I mean it's very unusual for her. I know this dog, I know her fears, I know her quirks, she was abused, so there's certain things we can't do around her, she just gets so scared, she starts climbing the burglar guards in front of the windows. Or the Security gates in front of the doors. Suddenly about a month ago, she starts doing this, every night as soon as the sun starts settings. She doesn't want to be indoors, she doesn't want to be outside, she goes into such a frantic state, she hyperventilates, she has been trying to chew through my backdoor! Both sides! She attacks the gate, a steel gate, with her teeth. We even tried putting her in the garage, to see if that soothes her, since she doesn't want in or out. She goes crazy in there as well. She physically hurts herself. We have found blood from her scratching and chewing on the doors.

I am seriously worried about my babygirl. I don't know what to do anymore. Have you ever seen a husky climb a 6 ft gate? Or attack it for no reason? When we open the gate, thinking that's what she wants, she refuses to go out. We have another dog, a labby, and he is quite happy, his old self, no problems. I call him the flasher, 'cause when ever you come near, he rolls onto his back, lol. Obviously not to flash, he LOVES belly scratches. He's fine, no problems. So I honestly for the life of me, can not figure out what on earth is going on with my husky.

Any ideas? If no ideas, some tips on how to calm her down, would be fantastic, I could do with a full night's rest. It doesn't carry on all night, luckily, but it comes and goes throughout the night, as soon as the sun comes up, she's her old self again. It's just too weird to comprehend. There was one incident, I had to go out into the garage to get some painkillers, for my head, in the early morning hours, I took the labby with me, not wanting to get my husky all worked up all over again, I hate the garage, but I hate any garage, so I don't think there's specifically anything wrong with our garage. While I was sitting in the drivers seat retrieving the painkillers, he out of the blue starts growling and barking at the wall? It creeped me out, possibly because I already experience the garage as a creepy place, but why was he reacting that way? And never at any other time. I just got the pills and we went back into the house as quickly as possible.

Before you say keeping painkillers in the car is a stupid place to keep it. Mine was finished, my hubby keeps his in the car, as he sometimes gets migraines at work, which is when he needs it the most. I don't take the whole concoction he has to, obviously, I just take the painkillers, much to his disgust. Lol

For obvious reasons, since I can't figure out what's up with my golliwog, I don't know what's up with yours either I think it's weird, and I understand how you feel, as you can see above, I'm currently experiencing the same thing. If your furry kid, suddenly starts acting weird, it really freaks you out. I understand, and sympathize. I do have to say, 2007 seems a long time ago for your grandmother to suddenly start spooking your dog now, wouldn't your sister have noticed something by now if she was? I would therefor think if it is in those lines, it's new. Maybe listen if your sister suddenly starts talking about weird goings on in her room?

Just seems stupid creating a whole other thread, regarding strange acting furry kids, when yours is basically already going. I just see so many double posts, and as this would not really quantify as a double post if I had to create one, it just seems redundant to do so. Hope you don't mind, this is not a hi-jack, I think we can both possibly find answers from any replies. Good luck

reply to post by Fenix777


Is it possible this dog is in heat? Even if fixed, if she already was mature by that she was, her behavior could/would have been set. Animals in heat from cats to cows, etc. will go to extremes to defeat blockages such as fences that always deterred them before. If the male dog hasn't been fixed and shows no sexual interest in her, I guess we can assume that she is not in heat.

reply to post by Aliensun


For the first time in three years she's in heat? Is that possible? Both of them were fixed at around the same time, she was fixed before we got her, and he a couple of days after, to give her a break, poor girl. I'm not sure when she was fixed before we got her, but you could still see where they shaved her and the scar was still fairly fresh, no stitches, but you could clearly see where it was, ie, it was still red at the time. They weren't sure how old she was exactly, but the vet judged her to be around three, so the two dogs are about the same age. She has never had puppies, this the vet told us when we adopted her, I remember it being so sad that a female had to be fixed before she ever had the chance to have puppies, but I also agree with all the animals being euthanized, that it's in everybody's best interest that we fix our pets. With husky rescue, as well as with the SPCA, they have it a rule of thumb, no pet gets adopted without being fixed. I know because when you adopt, you pay that bill to the vet directly. So you not paying for the dog, you paying for the fixing and the shots they have to get before being placed.

My only problem with what you're saying is, that she's never behaved this way before, which would imply that she is in a psychological heat now for the first time in 3 years? And only between sun down and sun up? Not even ghosts work that way. Maybe my neighbor is doing something then, or they have something going at night specifically, that freaks her out? Like an outdoors light that's making a clicking sound, like when you clip your nails, that's one of the things that freaks her out beyond. You want to see that dog jump and run? One click on your nails and she's gone, you'll find her trying to climb through a gate or something. Can lights do that? Or anything else used for outdoors and used at night? And why does it freak her out even when she's in the house or far away from the neighbors? Something in our house? A short somewhere? Would a short create a clicking sound?

I don't know what's with the nail-clippers thing, all I can think of is that the clicking of her nails bugged them, so they clipped her nails. The thing is, if you don't know what you're doing you could seriously hurt the dog, their nails are "live" so to speak. That's all I can come up with on that one. Poor girl, it obviously traumatized her for life.

A few years ago my mother took in a small Chihuahua who had belonged to a deceased relative. I've posted about this here before. This poor little dog had belonged to a family made up of parents who were both deaf, and two boys who weren't. I don't know much more, other than that the boys were horribly mean to this little dog. The parents had no idea that their children were tormenting the poor little animal because they couldn't hear her yelps.

Long story short, this little dog will not let anyone pick her up without raising holy hell. She will let you pet her, and seems to enjoy the attention, but if you make any attempt to scoop her up, she will squeal and yell. No laying in our laps... Nothing like that at all.

This behavior of hers was well established.

But one night, while I was home alone with her, as night fell, she just started to freak out... As it got darker, she just got more and more scared, looking all around, staring in all directions, and even jumping onto my lap (and immediately jumping back off)

I will say this: that she was a neurotic little dog. But this time it was well outside of her established patterns. And it did "freak me out".

Originally posted by Aliensun
reply to post by Picollo30

 

Perhaps he was having a mild epileptic seizure. That happens.

That was actually my first thought as well. A petit Mal seizure. My dog has Epilepsy and takes medicine for it... He rarely has them any more but when he does they are usually Grand Mal.

Just last week though he had a petit mal. He did just about like the OP described. Just stopped and stared off into space, with a dazed look in his eyes and could not stand up straight and all that. A little shaking as well.

To the OP, if this is the first time this has happened, keep an eye on him. If it keeps up take him to the vet because he could have epilepsy.

reply to post by Teratoma


That is so strange, it's almost exactly like what has been happening to my girl. Did it just happen the one night? Because mine is doing it every night. Last night 12:30 AM and my son and I are running around trying to get her to calm down before the neighbors call the cops or something. So I got hold of her leash, put her on it, sat on the floor in front of her, and we had a staring match, lol, You might find it strange, and it didn't start out as a staring match, I just sat there holding her leash so she can't run off again, and looked at her completely out of ideas on what to do, and for some reason, the more I looked at her, the more she calmed down, eventually she sat, panting like crazy, and I realized we're having a staring contest, I can not whatever it takes back down now, she had to back down first. So we sat like that for a long time, eventually she broke off the stare and lay down between my legs completely calm. So I still sat there for a while, just stroking her head and soothing her.

Honestly, I have no idea what that was all about, I just followed my gut, and my gut told me, that's what she needed. Maybe, it was a psychological thing for her? Zoë and I had from the day she got out of husky rescue's car had this instant bond, and usually I am the only one she would listen to. She is such a sweet and loving dog, it's hard to fathom how anybody could ever want to hurt her. But even though we had this instant bond, this connection, there are certain things that not even I could do, like she wouldn't trust me to stroke the top of her head, only in her neck and under her chin. Never from above, only from the bottom, strange, eh? Last night was like that final barrier came down, and she decided to trust me, that we will never hurt her, like her previous owners did. We love her, even when she drives us nuts in the middle of the night and we're not going to send her away. Maybe that's what last night was all about, she was scared out of her mind, but letting that final barrier finally come down, and trusting me, that I wont let anything bad happen to her, gave her the peace that she needed to calm down, even when she senses something wrong, it's ok, I am here, and nothing bad is going to happen to her. That is exactly why we put the doggy yard in the middle of the property, so that nobody from the street, could throw meat over the gate with poison in to kill her. I don't know if you guys have that there, we do here, the doggy yard is their yard, and there she can be a husky like her instincts tell her to be a husky, and she can dig a den to her hearts content lol, and Dizzy (the labby) can do his thing, it's theirs to do with as they please. I still want to put a splash pool thing in there for them as well, maybe Dizzy would then stop trying to swim in his water-bowl on days that it's very hot, lol.

I don't know, what do you guys think? Was what I did last night the right thing to do? And if you have more knowledge on dogs, what exactly happened there? I guess only time will tell if all is sorted out now when the sun sets.

I think the reason why Dizzy is not affected by whatever is affecting Zoë, is because we got him as a puppy, papers and all. We didn't set out to look for a puppy with papers, it's just how it worked out. He grew up with us, and whenever we moved, he came with, so he doesn't have Zoë's issues with trust, or just simply issues. He has always been with us, always loved, always been cared for. Knowing that has never been an issue for him.

reply to post by Fenix777


I just wanted to quickly let you all know, that it didn't work, in fact, my puppy ( yes ok, not a puppy but my puppy) is actually gotten worse. it is now 1:48AM and only now, since it started getting dark, were we able to finally get her to calm down. She's still on edge and won't relax, but she's standing still over her water bowl, taking a couple of laps every couple of minutes totally hyperventilating. Her ears pointed backwards and flat against her head and big eyes (like she's scared out of her wits), so you can see she's still on edge I've decided I'm taking her to the vet, although nothing seems physically wrong with her, we've checked her as much as what we know about dogs health, and she checks out fine, she's eating fine, no changes in appetite. She's not in any pain either and during the day she's her normal old self. But I'm taking her to the vet anyway, maybe he can come up with some ideas. I'll even take her to a doggy psychologist if I have to, this has got to stop, my neighbors are putting up a fuss now. How do you explain to them, you don't know what's going on, you don't know what to do, your dog seems to go crazy every night? We can't carry on this way, so I'm taking her to the vet, I don't know what else to do.

Maybe it's a werewolf thing lol. Sorry, just trying to make light, I have to or I'll go nuts.

Do you guys think she could be dangerous, while she's got herself so worked up? She's not growling or threatening in any manner, just seems to be really really scared. I'm just wondering if I should watch out for the kids when she gets like this.

We had a dog that used to sit in the basement and stare at the circuit breaker box.

She would just sit there while we were down there doing laundry or whatever - if I spent an hour down there she would stare at the breaker box for an hour.

She'd just sit there and tilt her head every once in a while. Shes passed away now (from cancer) but it was wierd behavior IMO.

The other dogs (we have 5) seemed uninterested.

It was odd!

reply to post by Golf66


That's weird, especially since the other dogs aren't interested in it at all. Now I know dogs can hear high pitches of sound much better than humans can, but is it possible that some dogs can hear even more than other dogs? What breed of dog was it? This is what I was thinking the other day, and I think I mentioned it, maybe my dog hears something that's driving her nuts, and it's making her afraid, like the sound of clipping your nails scares her something horrific, what if there is a short somewhere and as soon as we are using it, like a light used at night, she starts hearing it, and starts going nuts. Maybe the OPer's dog hears something too, that it's trying to focus on to try and find the source? And your dog, maybe she? could hear the humming of the electricity going through the circuit breaker box (feels weird writing that, lol, we just call it the DB box .

Is it possible, that some dogs hear even more than other dogs?

The only thing I don't understand about that theory and my dog, is no matter where she is on the property, she goes nuts! Either this sound (if that's the case) is THAT loud to her that no matter where she goes she can still hear it, or it's not that at all, which puts me right back to square one

reply to post by Fenix777


Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know, I found out my baby has Canine Sun-downers syndrome, which is a side effect of Canine Cognitive Dysfunction which is similar to Alzheimers in humans. And my heart is breaking.

Just wanted to thank everybody for their input as well, appreciate it very much. Take care.

Originally posted by Fenix777
reply to post by Fenix777

 

Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know, I found out my baby has Canine Sun-downers syndrome, which is a side effect of Canine Cognitive Dysfunction which is similar to Alzheimers in humans. And my heart is breaking.

Just wanted to thank everybody for their input as well, appreciate it very much. Take care.

Sorry, the love of a dog is a pure thing - it sucks to have to lose a friend - I have lost many in my lifetime; it never gets any easier.

Only thing that ever gave me comfort when I had to make the decision as to when and where was that we can do for them what we cannot do for each other and that is easing their suffering.

We have a vet who will come to the home and do the procedure in the house so that there is no final clinical visit and the animal is in a comfortable surrounding.

Wish you and your friend all the best.

Originally posted by Fenix777
reply to post by Fenix777

 

Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know, I found out my baby has Canine Sun-downers syndrome, which is a side effect of Canine Cognitive Dysfunction which is similar to Alzheimers in humans. And my heart is breaking.

Just wanted to thank everybody for their input as well, appreciate it very much. Take care.

Ah darn.. sorry to hear that Fenix

reply to post by Fenix777


Sorry for the delay in my reply. I wanted to say that the night I described before seemed to be a dramatic 'peak' in her anxiety; she had shown signs of 'agitation' around nightfall - pacing, head-cocking... but this night was different. She seemed like she was reacting to unseen/unheard firecrackers all around her - things she could SEE, and was TERRIFIED of.

The next night she just kinda paced around. She did so again and again until we decided to put pillows in front of the part of the window she seemed to obsess over.