Dog Afraid Of Grass With Dew On It.

[Guest sfalexi]

We've had our dogs about a month. Neither's a greyhound, but I like this forum.

 

They're both doing great. One's a year old, the other is about 3.5 months old. But for some reason, about two weeks ago, they seem to be VERY VERY hesitant about walking onto grass that has dew. Normally every morning, I wake up, I let them out the back door, and they run over to the grass just past the cement patio and take a morning pee. Lately (a week or two), the big one just doesn't pee and stands on the patio. The little one will pee right on the patio.

 

Today I took them one by one and walked them in the dew on the leash. The little one walked right out there, but every now and then tried to run back to the patio. When he realized he was on the leash, he gave up, but he stuck REALLY close to me. Right up on my leg.

 

The older one (and 75 pounds of course), dug his heels in the patio when I tried to walk off of it, but after that quick jerk, he came right over. About the same story as the small one.

 

This morning I also decided instead of eating breakfast in the crate, I'd give them breakfast on the wet lawn (I'm mean, I know!) The little one was pretty good coming over and eating. The bigger one came over (after some hesitation), and ate a little bit, then ran back to the patio.

 

Anyone know why this could be? Or how to cure this? Right now it's just the morning dew. The afternoon and evening they're fine. They also don't seem to care about rain so I don't think that's the issue. Just interesting....

 

Alexi

[GeorgeofNE]

Could you have ants or some other biting insects that you haven't noticed, but they have?

 

Something coming into your yard at night, and leaving a scent in the grass seems a much more likely reason for this behavior than "fear of dew"!

[Magdalyn58]

My Teddy hates stepping on anything "wet." When Sophie was still with us, she was the same way. She'd actually just stay on the sidewalk and pee right there rather than having to place her precious paws on the horrible wet grass.

[Guest BorzoiMom]

They could be allergic to the grass and trying to stay off of it. What breeds/mixes are they? Some breeds are very sensitive to grass allergy. The dew may have the allergens soaked into it and it brings it direct contact with the skin, more so than at other times. Are there any patches of missing hair or do they lick their feet a lot? Are they itchy? My friend's min pin/manchester has grass allergies, she avoids the grass except when she "has" to go, and gets dry, itchy, patchy skin even when the rest of her is shiny. It usually starts on her heels/hocks, then moves to her belly and flanks/sides.

[Pepperjack]

Zuni prefers to not walk on grass at all times. She particularly avoids it when it's wet. She's very cat-like in her aversion to getting wet.

[TheFullHouse]

If they were greyhounds I'd say they didn't want to get their feet wet. I'm not sure where you're from so I'll throw this out there, did you have a lot of fireworks on the 4th of July and did they have any fear of the noise? The reason I ask is a lot of dogs right after the 4th and all the fireworks are afraid to go back outside and it usually takes a few days to get them feeling secure enough to go back out there. Then again, maybe they just don't want to get their feet wet.

[Batmom]

It took Joseph quite some time (months, if not a year) to get used to the idea of getting his feet wet. He still doesn't really enjoy it. When it's raining, it's different -- EVERYTHING is wet! Our "patio" is actually a dog run (small fenced area within larger fenced yard) and I'd be happy as a clam if they did all their business in it so can't help you there. It might improve things if you keep your grass clipped short. I have it on good authority that less wet is better than more wet .

[mychip1]

I wonder if it's more the time of day than the dew.....as someone pointed out, could it be insects?....or perhaps the scent of something more "wild" that might be trolling through your yard at night. If they are scent hounds, they would love it....but other breeds might not.

[kudzu]

So they used to go out with no apparent problems or aversions to dew on the grass but will not now? And as far as you know the circumstances like location, how wet the grass is, how long the grass is, etc. have not changed? If so, I have not much to offer but the 4th of July theory sounds like it has merit.

 

Here the closest experience I have had to this. I had a little spaniel mix. She really would have preferred not to walk on wet grass but would do so rather than pee in the house. BTW, she would splash through puddles & wade into a lake in a heartbeat. I took her with me to visit my sister in Orlando. They were in an apartment complex with nicely kept lawns, plenty of excellent potty spots. Or so I thought. My dog did not concur. She put one paw on the grass & withdrew it. She would not pee inside, on concrete or asphalt. Would not go on the grass there & the only other spots required walking on grass to get there. She held it for 18 hours. Finally I had had enough. Picked her up & walked a few feet onto the grass & plopped her down, not allowing her to leave until she pottied. She figured it out & for the next 36 hours we repeated this with me plopping her down, her pottying rightawayquick & then taking a giant bound back onto the sidewalk. It was totally bizarre. The only reason I could think of was St Augustine, the grass not the city. It feels different to me so maybe it just creeped her out.

 

The one time we went outside, I walked her to the edge of the grass, start to pick her up to carry her out into the grass & then... pad-pad-pad... she walked out onto the grass with no problem and did her business! Then she wanted to walk across the grass to sniff some bushes!! They had mowed the grass that morning. It was much shorter. I could feel a big difference. Next time we visited they had just mowed. She had no problems. We went farther South for a couple days & came back through Orlando. Dog wouldn't walk on grass. It now had days of growth & was visibly longer.

 

Dogs just do not approach things the same way we do & notice things we either don't notice or pay little attention to.

[Guest sfalexi]

I hadn't thought of the grass thing. I haven't cut the grass since I moved in a month ago (hehehe....Been trying to find a cheap mower cause it's a small yard and I don't want to spend big bucks on something for a small yard...)

 

VERY well could be that, except they love running around the yard when it's dry. Around 10 AM all bets are off and they love to run in the yard. Also, it's not a "feet being wet" thing with these particular dogs cause they'll go in lakes and swimming pools. But maybe it is a little itchy with higher grass and dew. I'll see what I can do about cutting it, and lead them out there on leash every morning till they get the idea that it WON'T kill them to walk on grass.

 

Alexi

[Batmom]

Dry vs. wet is very important. And wet one way vs. wet another way -- well! Any dog will tell you, these things are DIFFERENT! :lol