Odd Behavior

[rascalsmom]

Jack has been with us since November of '09, a little over a year. Once he learned how to do the stairs, he joined us every evening in our basement family room. All the dogs have a bed there, and they would all come down with us every evening.

 

In the past couple of weeks, though, Jack will not come downstairs. If he does happen to come down, he is clearly uneasy, and runs back upstairs within minutes--usually he won't even lie down at all, sometimes he'll settle onto his bed but within a few minutes, gets up and run upstairs.

 

If one of us goes upstairs to see what he's doing, he's either in the family room upstairs, in our bedroom on his bed, or in the hallway. If we try and get him to come downstairs, he gets rather stressed out and won't do it.

 

Also, Ruby has trained her daddy to pass out treats downstairs, as soon as he comes home from work. Jack was going down there for the daily treat, too, until a couple of weeks ago. He won't even go down for the treat now!

 

This is very odd. Any ideas?

[Guest Swifthounds]

Any household changes? New furniture? something moved? Newly shined floors?

[rascalsmom]

Any household changes? New furniture? something moved? Newly shined floors?

Hmmm....I was going to say no, but I can't. We are getting ready to move and things are in a bit of an upheaval. Not with furniture but with boxes packed, etc. Although there aren't any boxes stacked up in the family room downstairs....the majority of boxes are in the dining room (which they don't have access to) and the workshop in the basement (also no dog access due to cat box being in there). So I don't know if that can be it or not...the 'relaxing' areas are pretty much the same as always.

[GeorgeofNE]

Do you have a working carbon monoxide detector?

 

Basement room--furnace--piles of snow...first thing that came to mind is that he is hearing or smelling something you cannot.

[rascalsmom]

Yes, we have a functional CO detector.

[greysmom]

Something probably happened either on the stairs or in the basement to kind of freak him out. Probably something so small you didn't even notice - a bump by another dog, a slip off a riser, something falling from a bookshelf. Just keep encouraging him to go down and really make it fun and happy and upbeat when he does, and let him hang where he wants. See 4my2greys thread about her girl suddenly becoming fearful of her food bowl.

[robinw]

Phoenix started acting like that when he began to lose his eyesight, only he wouldn't go upstairs. Has your vet taken a look at his eyes?

[rascalsmom]

Buddy had trouble going UP steps near the end of his life--but Jack has no trouble at all going up or down. He goes up in two leaps, and he goes down nicely, too (though fortunately not in two leaps! ).

 

I doubt it is his eyes...he just acts like, once he's downstairs, "gotta get out of here!".

[rascalsmom]

Something probably happened either on the stairs or in the basement to kind of freak him out. Probably something so small you didn't even notice - a bump by another dog, a slip off a riser, something falling from a bookshelf. Just keep encouraging him to go down and really make it fun and happy and upbeat when he does, and let him hang where he wants. See 4my2greys thread about her girl suddenly becoming fearful of her food bowl.

I just read through that thread--sounds like Rascal and her "food bowl phobia".

Anyway, what I took away from that thread was not to make much of the situation. We really haven't been making much of it, but last night Jack came downstairs, and I greeted him (casually: "Hi, Jack"), and then DH greeted him (more enthusiastically), and he ran back upstairs. Maybe we should just not acknowledge it when he DOES come down?

 

To be honest, I'm a little nervous about his reaction to moving. He is definitely the most sensitive of the three dogs....