Worried about Sue-Shi

For the past two days, Sue-Shi has been acting weird. I had a migraine yesterday so spent most of the day in bed. When I went out to let them out and feed them dinner, Sue-Shi went out back as normal. She came flying into the house and hid under the baker's rack - something she's never done. She wouldn't come out and I had to coax her out with a carrot. After she ate, she came and sat on the couch, but kept staring down the hallway towards the baker's rack and did that all night. She followed me everywhere. She wouldn't go outside last night after dark or this morning when it was still dark out. She acted fine most of the day until I just let them out for dinner and she did the same thing as yesterday.

I'm thinking something outside is possibly spooking her, but not sure what. The back neighbor has roosters, but they're not new. Nothing has changed around here at all. She's going to the bathroom normally. She's almost 11 months old now. I've felt around on her and she doesn't seem to be in any pain and other than hiding and staring down the hall, she's acting normal. Any suggestions?

it does sound like something spooked her while she was outside. a big bug, or lizard or something maybe? It's hard to know if you didn't see anything...

maybe go out with her next time and reward her for being outside? show her that it's a good thing again?

I have been going out with her today. She goes out fine in the daytime, but won't budge after dark. When she goes out in the daytime, she still runs inside and hides. I was just washing up lunch dishes and she stood in the doorway staring into the dining room where the baker's rack is. I'm starting to think she sees dead people! I haven't seen anything outside to scare her and she loves lizards, they're her play toy.

Sabra:
The above is from an article on Puppy Development. I can send you the whole article if you're interested, but she's right in the middle of the second fear stage.

Ahhhh, thanks Blanche! I was really starting to worry. It sounds exactly like what she's doing. I couldn't remember if Mack had done anything like this as a puppy. All I could remember was that he barked his head off anytime we moved a piece of furniture or something was out of place.

MackandMattiesMom wrote:Ahhhh, thanks Blanche! I was really starting to worry. It sounds exactly like what she's doing. I couldn't remember if Mack had done anything like this as a puppy. All I could remember was that he barked his head off anytime we moved a piece of furniture or something was out of place.

Tell her that Pippin has decided that TV remotes are evil incarnate. He was fine with them last week. This week, they scare the hell out of him. And yard waste bags. Very bad things, yard waste bags.

Haw! Blanche beat me to the punch. She's a teenager now and coming out of the socialization window. Things like caution cones, random flapping paper, fabric and the notorious plastic bag are now your dog's sworn enemy. Luckily it's a fleeting thing with most pugs, count your blessings you don't have a GSD or Dobie, this is when they discover they can bark. Really loud.

pugasaurus wrote:Haw! Blanche beat me to the punch. She's a teenager now and coming out of the socialization window. Things like caution cones, random flapping paper, fabric and the notorious plastic bag are now your dog's sworn enemy. Luckily it's a fleeting thing with most pugs, count your blessings you don't have a GSD or Dobie, this is when they discover they can bark. Really loud.

So then Pippin is part GSD or Dobie? Mind you, while he's very loud, it's not really a bark, but this God Awful yodelly screamy noise. Enters your body at the base of the spine and shoots out the top of your head.....

Penny still has her moments of seeing things and barking and screaming at them. Last night, it was my sandals. Evil incarnate. I couldn't even put them on to take her walkie, I had to wear my crocs. A while back, it was the pot rack. Today, there is something in the garage, and she won't go out there if the light is off, and stands about 10 feet away from the garage door, barking and yelling at it, whatever it is. I have long known that she sees things that I don't.

I suppose I'm lucky that she has yet to really discover her bark. I've heard it a few times when she's trying to get Mack or Mattie to play, but that's it. Mack and Mattie bark their head off at the neighbor dog, who barks at the wind blowing and Sue-Shi looks at them like they're nuts. She was also afraid of the new garbage bag today and she usually attacks them when I open them up. I'm so relieved it's all normal.

I'm glad to hear it's all normal, too! I had forgotten about this, but remember learning about it in puppy school.

Interesting article Blanche! I hope this is what it is Sabra.

Okay, so how do I handle this being scared of going outside thing? Now she's afraid to go out in the daytime too. She'll go out, walk to the end of the patio, and haul tail back into the house and hide. Of course, that leads to potty accidents and I don't want her to get used to peeing in the house. I've been going out with her with a treat and she couldn't care less about a treat. Do I just let her do whatever until she gets over it and retrain her to potty outside? It's not a huge deal because we do have tile, but I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing.

ETA (9am Saturday): Dennis let them out early this morning (it was still dark) and she was fine. I just let them out again (daytime) and she's fine. I guess she's over it.

If it continues, keep taking her out like it's no big deal. Lots of people instinctively coax and baby-talk the dog while she/he is doing whatever scares them which is pretty normal and human. but the dog is actually being rewarded for acting fearful.

Take her outside act like it's no big deal and she'll take her cue from you. If she shows any interest or curiosity about being outside, that's when you heap on the praise so that she's being rewarded for acting brave.

If it doesn't improve, I'd try planting a few treats outside where it's easy for her to find them. She'll find the treats and suddenly going outside is fun! By doing this, I've seen dogs who hated going outside suddenly love it. After awhile the treats go away.

Thanks, Karen. So far, she's fine today. I was just acting normal when she was going out, but leaving the door open so she can get back inside. If I didn't she would go hide under my nephew's car (he's restoring an old car here in our backyard) and I couldn't get her out from under it. It's way too hot here for her to be out very long so I wanted her to at least be able to get inside when she freaked. Otherwise, I didn't do anything differently. Hopefully this is the end of it, she was breaking my heart. I didn't baby her or anything, but it was really hard not to!