Odd behavior

[IronHorse]

Last night while playing our normal game of catch the ball 1000 times before bedtime LuLu exhibited a most uncharacteristic behavior.

She was doing her normal routine and bringing her ball back to me when after about the 20th or 30th time she came up to me and dropped the ball at my feet then went to her crate.

I didn't think much about it other then that she may of just been tired and ready to go to bed abit early.

Well this morning she is normally the first one up and a ball of energy that can't wait to get outside.

She came out and had her normal breakfast but didn't want to go outside, she ate and got some pets and attention for awhile then she went back to her crate.

I've been monitoring her since this morning and she doesn't appear to be showing any signs of injury or being ill she just lays in her crate looking out,everytime i check on her she comes out,wants some pets,seems ok but then goes back in and lays in her crate.

 

I am concerned because this is just not her normal self but at this time I really don't think it appears to warrant a trip in to the Vet.

 

Its almost like she just wants to have some down time but doesn't appear to be ill.She is just kinda moupping around the house every so often, totally out of character for this bundle of energy.

Any ideas?

[juliepoudrier]

I think any time there's a complete change in character/behavior a trip to the vet is warranted. If you don't want to go to the vet, try taking her temperature to be sure she's not running a fever and perhaps palpating over her body to make sure she's not got any areas that are sore to the touch.

 

J.

[IronHorse]

took her temp and it seems ok,,a tad over 100

checked her over for any sensitive areas and she doesn't exhibit and soreness or tenderness anywhere.

Her appetite seems fine,she just made short work of a turkey neck.

she went out in the front room where her toy crate is and took one of her favorite balls back to her crate and is laying in there now with it in her mouth.

[Mary3030]

Hope she is fine,

[karrie]

Is she by chance in heat? My maltese would act very different when she went in heat. Missy was always the greeter and drill sargent but when she went in heat she went into hiding. My german shepherd would go stay in her dog house when she went in heat.

[vanillalove]

From previous experience, I suggest a trip to the vet, or at least a call. One night, Petey and I were playing tug in the basement when all of a sudden he just went and lay under the coffee table. He didn't seem overly tired, just uninterested in play. The next day, he went into complete hiding, even squishing himself in behind the washing machine. That's when we took him to the vet, and he was tested for epilepsy. I was pretty young, so I'm not sure what he ended up being diagnosed with, but he certainly never ended up being epileptic. From what I remember he was fine within a few days, but I can't remember if he was given any meds, though. I know she's not exhibiting these extreme behaviours, but just a precaution, you know?

 

I hope she's alright!

 

K.

[sweet_ceana]

If she is not spayed heat would be a good guess. No matter what I would have her checked out. Some dogs are just troopers and tuff things out, while others are drama queens!

[SincereArtisan]

Did something happen outside that might have scared her?

 

For instance, Ido will bolt for her crate if the washer/dryer starts up, or something akin to a hair dryer motor starts up. Maybe a neighbor started a sander, or weed-whacker, something that startled her, and she felt the urge to hide?

 

A trip to the vet wouldn't hurt. I'd take her on a short walk, maybe leave through a diff door, to see if you notice and lameness, etc...

[IronHorse]

Well after a full day of fretting and a couple calls to the vet's I found out what the problem was with LuLu.

It wasn't that she was injured or ill, it turned out that it was a blunder on my part.

Yesterday while the dogs were all out playing down back I had taken a couple of my rifles out of my gun safe downstairs and cleaned and inspected them.

Normally I do this in my "Man room" in the basement so the dogs only see the cases and not the rifles.

Thunderbolt and jasmine have no problem with guns,in fact when either of them see a rifle out they view it as an invitation to an expedition,but LuLu is very gun shy (i suspect she had bad experinces with guns in her previous life before she came to live with us)

 

Well I had brought one of my 22 cal rifles upstairs because i am taking it with me tomorrow on a little river run.Normally it would of been in a zippered case before i even brought it up from downstairs but I had left the new case i bought for it out in the truck and just figured I would take the rifle out in the morning when i got ready to leave and put it in its case then.

Instead of doing what i should of last night and gone out and got the case I set the rifle against the wall behind the couch I was sitting on when I was tossing the ball for LuLu last night. Apparently after she had brought me the ball to toss again, after a few times she noticed the rifle behind the couch and thats when she dropped her ball and went to her room and got in her crate.

It did not dawn on me today that every time she would come out of her room and around the corner of the hall she would look and see that the rifle was still there and she would turn around and go back to her crate.

Wasn't 10 minutes after i had taken the rifle out and put in the truck that she was out and back to her normal energetic self.

So it was my bad and I feel terrible that my actions caused her undo stress for the whole day,normally i am very in tune with my dogs and would of realized what the problem was.

 

I made her an ice cream cone and me and her went for a walk without the other two and she seemed to accept this as my clumsy attempt at an apology to her.

All is well again and I promised her I would not make that mistake again.

Thanks all for your concerns

[Anda]

LOL - Now that's a smart Border Collie! And a (eventually) insightful owner Glad it had a logical explanation and nothing was wrong with LuLu.

 

P.S. To be honest, I think I would have reacted just like her

[ShoresDog]

I'm glad you got it figured out. Poor LuLu! In addition to being very intelligent, they are also very sensitive, eh. Firecracker noises from nearby houses -- not even very loud -- put Daisy in a funk and she goes to her crate or one of her other hidey-holes and hunkers down, like you described for LuLu. You don't even want to know what Daisy thinks about full-on fireworks, or having a firecracker or car backfire go off near her when we're outside in the evening. I think hearing a firecracker far-off upsets her because it reminds her of the scariness of a close encounter, like how LuLu felt about seeing the gun. As an aside, we seem to be hearing firecrackers for every little holiday, or even just because it's Saturday, for crying out loud. It's very annoying! At least you can put the gun away and remember to avoid visuals in the future!

[WyoBC]

Awww poor girl. Black Jack knows how you feel. It kind of sucks too because we live about two miles from a gun range So we just stay in while they are open.

 

I'm sure glad it wasn't anything bad. It sounded just like Black Jack when he hurt his back. He was playing then all of a sudden he ran to his crate and wouldn't come out. Finally after a lot of vet bills they figured out it was his back. Either he had been beaten on the back or fell out of a truck, but he has three bad disks.