Dog mysteriously terrorized??
Ever had a dog behave like it's seen a ghost? Not at all sure what's going on here.
When I came home from choir this evening (absence of about 2 1/2 hours), Cassie and Ruby were in their accustomed nest, the back bathroom. Ruby has established her special nest in between the toilet and the frame of the shower door (that bathroom has no tub: just a shower with glass doors). Cassie also nests in the bathroom, on the little bathroom rug. Usually whenever I come back in the house from some expedition, Cassie comes out and strolls through the garage into the side yard. She comes back in and then Ruby comes out and then they both go charging back out through the side door to the garage and race around the yard together.
But tonight Ruby refused to come out from behind the toilet. She wouldn't come to call, and she looked very frightened. Eventually I managed to woo her out with the promise of doggy treats. She slunk into the kitchen like she thought I was going to bite her, grabbed a dog treat, and ran back to her nest, where she again refused to come out.
So I lured her out with another dog treat, picked her up, carried her out to the door, set her down...and she turned around and raced back to her nest.
???? Possibly she and Cassie had a fight? If so, neither dog shows any sign at all of injury, and Cassie is not acting at all strange or different. (Right this instant, as I write this, they're both asleep side by side, their bodies touching, on the bed...I think if she were afraid of Cassie, she wouldn't be doing that.)
A prowler could have come in through the dog door, which was built for a 90-pound greyhound so tall the 80-pound German shepherd could walk underneath him like he was a bridge. A grown man can easily get in that thing. But there was no sign anyone had been in the house.
I went to (a different) bathroom, and while I was sitting there she came roaring out in full guard-dog mode, flew into the front of the house, and had a barking frenzy. As far as I could tell, no one was around. I couldn't hear anything or see anything. By the time I could get up and investigate, she had gone back to her nest, where she was again cowering.
Not having a pistol in hand (and not really believing anyone was in the house, because Cassie would have indicated so if there were), I picked her up and carried her from room to room, opening and examining each closet, checking behind chairs where a person could hide, There's no one in the house.
Cop helicopter flew over: she didn't like that much. But just now the policia don't seem to be in pursuit, at least not here in the 'hood.
I've never seen her act like this. Matter of tact, I've never seen any dog cower like this -- at least, not one that was never abused. No one has ever hit or injured Ruby in any way, so I don't understand why she's behaving like she's utterly terrorized. Surely if Cassie had attacked her, one or both of them would show some injuries...and the truth is, the dominant one of that pair is Ruby, anyway. Nor would they be curled up on the bed in full bosom-buddy mode.
Could she have had a nightmare? Dogs evidently dream, but do they have dogmares scary enough to carry over into their waking state?
Anybody have any experience with behavior like this? Got any idea about what would bring on an apparent spate of terror out of the blue?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by susan on
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Could someone have come to your front door and knocked, made loud noises? My guess is something real happened, not a nightmare, but who knows with these fuzzballs.
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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on
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Could be. All the doors are secured with heavy-duty security screens, locked with Medelok deadbolts that will break your drill if you try to drill them open. It doesn't look like anyone tried to prize it open with a crowbar or kick it in frustration -- no dents or bends.
Got a little clue in this morning's news: Homeland Security is doing some sort of "exercise" over some (undesignated) neighborhoods, in which they're flying helicopters extremely close to the ground. The other day some idiot buzzed the 'hood in a helicopter -- couldn't have been more than a hundred feet over the rooftops (more like 50, I'd estimate), and it was after dark.
The stupidity of this defies belief: ours is an old neighborhood with mature trees. The previous owners of my house installed a weeping acacia in the side yard -- the thing is now huge. It's at least twice the height of the roof. If a helicopter hit it, the craft would fall onto my house or the neighbor's house -- or both our houses. The crew were not flashing searchlights the way the cops do, so I assume our 'hood has the privilege of being a venue for these ill-advised frolics.
Even a small cop helicopter is very loud when it's at rooftop height -- this thing REALLY rattled the windows.
If the clowns were up there flying around while I was gone, that would explain why she seemed more frightened when she heard a cop helicopter pass.
Terrorists, indeed...
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Permalink Reply by Jan Brandon on
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It is possible that Cassie is ill or maybe she is injured in some way - possibly pulled a muscle etc. Dogs are very good at masking and hiding pain - but it can also manifest in strange ways. If the cowering continues and she continues to act fearful consider taking her to the vet for a check up. Hope she feels better soon.
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Thanks, Jan! That's a useful suggestion.
It was the Ruby the Corgi Puppy (former puppy: along about three years old now!) who seemed to be having a neurotic fit. Cassie (pushing 11 years now) was just fine.
By the next day, Ruby seemed to have recovered. That evening when I found her in such a state, I put her (and Cassie) up on the bed and climbed into the sack myself, there to read and blog before lights out. She calmed down considerably and did not try to jump off. In the morning, she was pretty well back to normal.
I have NO clue WTF. The possibilities are...- The infamous "black helicopters" (eyeroll)
- The young people across the road making a lot of loud noise with their unmuffled street toys
- She could've been in the backyard and a coyote could have come over the wall. If she escaped by flying through the doggy door (and was not pursued into the house, or if Cassie drove the wild one out), that would explain her behavior. Seems unlikely, though, since neither animal was injured. Also a coyote would quickly get lost inside the house, if it pursued her into the far bathroom. It would have a hard time finding its way back to the dog door.
- Possibly a burglar tried to break in. She doesn't know from burglars, though, and would have no reason to be frightened.
- A fight or threatened fight with Cassie. Also unlikely, for the same reason: no injuries.
- A dogmare
Whatever...she seems to be OK now, thank goodness.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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I'd say the helicopter OR someone started to come in and saw the dogs and left OR wild animals fighting in the yard scared the pants off her. It's funny, because Jack is a very brave dog--- the sort of dog that will go towards things he finds threatening rather than backing up, the sort of dog who if we are hiking and something falls onto the trail or into the undergrowth behind him will startle and then turn around to see if he has to defend us from anything--- but one time we were on the deck and two squirrels had a ridiculously awful fight. Lots of chattering and falling through the branches and some screeching. Very angry squirrels! Well, he wanted to go inside and would not come back on the deck for a week. If a squirrel or anything else came after HIM or US he would be right on that, but apparently two squirrels fighting each other was more than peace-loving Jack wanted to deal with. So if, say, two non-related coyotes met out back and had a loud squabble over territory, that might have scared her too.
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That is the most hilarious story! Or is it the WEIRDEST story??? Battling squirrels...think of that...
Coyotes will come over a six- to eight-foot wall around here in search of cats and small dogs to eat (one woman I met described exactly that: coyote ghosted over the back wall, grabbed her small, Yorkie-sized dog, and took off with it). At 20 pounds, Ruby would be hard for a 35-pound coyote to carry over a six-foot wall, though.
They'll take on larger domestic dogs during whelping season, when instinct tells them to clear out competing canids from their territory. Coyote whelping in these parts comes in the springtime, though the weather's been so warm this fall, I suppose...anything's possible.
If Ruby escaped a hungry coyote, it's not surprising that she'd be scared, though you'd think the presence of Cassie would help to reassure her. Cassie refuses to go through the dog door, so if Ruby encountered a coyote in the backyard, she would've been alone.
The other thing that occurred to me is that she and Cassie might have had a fight. Occasionally they'll have a kind of mock fight -- angry-sounding to the point of alarming the human. It seems not to be real fighting, though. If they'd gone at it in earnest, one of them surely would have gotten hurt. Neither was injured and no fur had been flying...nor did they act at all out of the ordinary toward each other.
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