My Dog Barks At Walls

[Ninso]

Nobody ever accused Jun of being sane. Her new thing is barking at walls . . . no, barking isn't the right word . . . lets try, screaming bloody murder! I have absolutely no idea what she's barking at, shadows maybe, but she only does this when she's in her crate and her crate isn't covered and I'm not in the room. The way she cowers while staring at the wall and screaming makes me think there is some kind of fear involved, but . . . a) she doesn't bark at walls or shadows when she's not in her crate, and she never used to do this! It just started about a week ago, and now that's how I get to wake up at 5:28 every morning. Covering her crate works to get her to stop barking, but, I don't really want to have to keep her covered all the time. Also, when she starts barking, I will go into the living room where her crate is, get her attention, tell her to lay down, and then she will be fine (sometimes she starts barking at a different wall a few mintues later, but sometimes she just goes back to sleep). Granted, Jun is no stranger to crate-barking in general, but we solved her attention-demanding barking (at least at home) long, long ago and I don't think that's what this is. Why is my dog so insane? Does anyone else's dog invent new behavior problems just for fun? Could she be having some type of hallucinations or bad dreams from the Proin she's been on for the past two weeks? I just ran out, so maybe I will keep her off of it for a week or so and see what happens. I'm open to other ideas.

[Root Beer]

Could she be having some type of hallucinations or bad dreams from the Proin she's been on for the past two weeks? I just ran out, so maybe I will keep her off of it for a week or so and see what happens. I'm open to other ideas.

 

That would be my first suspicion.

 

In the meantime, is there anything you can do to make the wall look different to see if that will make a difference? Maybe prop a big box up against it or temporarily stick a piece of furniture there or something?

[Ninso]

In the meantime, is there anything you can do to make the wall look different to see if that will make a difference? Maybe prop a big box up against it or temporarily stick a piece of furniture there or something?

 

Good thought, but she picks a different wall, and a different spot on the wall, each time. So, I'd have to change them all.

[Root Beer]

Good thought, but she picks a different wall, and a different spot on the wall, each time. So, I'd have to change them all.

 

What about putting something around the crate to block her view of the walls, but leave the top open so she's not totally covered?

[Maralynn]

Is there any possibility that there could be some sort of critter (mice??) in the wall?

[Ninso]

I haven't tried that. I've only tried covering it completely, which solves the problem. Though if she were having hallucinations, I would think she would bark no matter what was in front of her face. The Proin is the only thing that has recently changed, and before that she was on Cystolamine, with no ill effects, and I believe they have the same active ingredient. So weird!

[Ninso]

Is there any possibility that there could be some sort of critter (mice??) in the wall?

 

I suppose it's possible, but if that's the case, don't you think she would be barking at walls even when not in her crate? Or maybe, when she's in her crate, she has nothing better to do. She's deaf, so she wouldn't hear them. Do you think she could smell them?

[Root Beer]

The Proin is the only thing that has recently changed, and before that she was on Cystolamine, with no ill effects, and I believe they have the same active ingredient. So weird!

 

Might there be an inactive ingredient that she might be having a bad reaction to? Seems like a long shot, but you never know.

[Maralynn]

I suppose it's possible, but if that's the case, don't you think she would be barking at walls even when not in her crate? Or maybe, when she's in her crate, she has nothing better to do. She's deaf, so she wouldn't hear them. Do you think she could smell them?

 

I didn't realize she was deaf. She probably could smell them if they were there. But you're right, she probably would still be obsessing over them if she were out of her crate.

[Ninso]

Well, the Proin is out of her system (demonstrated by the fact that she once again has to go out every ten minutes) but she's still barking at walls. This morning, I started to get the feeling she was messing with me. Every time she goes into that fear-barking mode I go to her and reassure her that there is nothing to be afraid of, give her a couple scritches, and then tell her to lay down. This morning as I went to her, she turned away from the corner she was barking at with a distictly pleased-with-herself look on her face. So I got out the dreaded spray bottle (normally just the sight of it is enough to shut her right up) and set it down on a table next to her crate, and sure enough she layed right down and didn't make a peep for the rest of the morning. That scary corner apparently wasn't all that important any more.

 

So, Kristine, I would especially like your opinion on this, as I think we just had a conversation about the fact that dogs don't fake fear for attention. But I am really starting to think that's what is going on here. The first time might have been real, but if she's really afraid of walls when she is in her crate, why then was she able to calm herself once the spray bottle appeared?

[Root Beer]

One thing that I've learned with Speedy is that with some dogs there is often a fine line between fear and stimulation.

 

For example, when we first moved here, Speedy was FREAKED out by the horses and buggies going by. He barked at them and freaked out quite a bit. Once he got used to them, that fear really transformed into stimulation. Now when he barks at the buggies, you can see in his eyes that he actually gets some sort of emotional high from it.

 

So, it is possible that whatever it was about the walls that frightened her before is now stimulating. That would explain the pleased-with-herself look and the fact that she appears to be more in control of her responses than she was before.

 

I really have found that when my dogs are truly frightened by something, they don't look pleased. The pupils might be dialated, the mouth might be hanging open in a "grin", but the overall expression is one of worry, panic, or uneasiness or concern. But if comfort level increases and the fear response transforms into pure stimulation, that happy-high look can be a pretty clear sign of that change in response.

 

That would be my guess in this situation - not that she is faking a fear response, but that her response is now stimulation and she has more control over that than she would a fear resonse.

 

Another possiblity is that this is still a fear response, but an extremely low level one. In that case, your presence alone might snap her out of it, and the presence of the bottle might be able to override her worries.

[Ninso]

That makes sense--fearful at first, but now she's just enjoying herself. It did really look like fear before with wide eyes and a very worried expression, but this morning it looked different. Oh joy, does that mean I now have one of those border collies who obsessea about things in her environment? I better nip this in the bud fast!

 

Sigh. It's a good thing she plays frisbee and rally.

[Root Beer]

That makes sense--fearful at first, but now she's just enjoying herself. It did really look like fear before with wide eyes and a very worried expression, but this morning it looked different. Oh joy, does that mean I now have one of those border collies who obsessea about things in her environment?

 

Possibly, but not necessarily. I'd wait and see if such a thing happens with any other stimulus before worrying about that. This really could be a one-time sort of thing. There really might have been something that triggered all of this in the first place that you aren't aware of. It could be random, but it might not be.

 

Dean went through a stage where he was afraid of soda bottles because of the sound that is made when the cap twists off - that fizzy sound. That never transferred to other ordinary household kinds of things and he just got over it after a while. Sometimes these sorts of things really do blow over.

 

Of course, if it happens again with something else, I'd be concerned about something more generalized.

[herdcentral]

Is it just a specific wall or corner of a wall? Would she do the same thing if you moved her crate into another area with a different set of walls. A drug like Proin is known in some dogs to cause effects that mimic excessive stimulation of the nervous sytem, even if you now have her off the drug I guess she might now just find the behaviour reinforcing. Although it is odd that a previous similar drug had no effect. Might be worth asking the vet.

 

My young dog is also on a similar drug (Propalin syrup) and it doesnt seem to have affected her.

[Ninso]

I hadn't tried moving her crate. Maybe I will do that and see what happens.