Bizarre Behaivor With Larry! Any Help Is Appreciated

[RaineysMom]

Awwww good boy Larry for getting better.

 

Kim you need to get a new signature with Larry in it too.

 

 

I know but I don't have any photoshopping ability

 

So happy to hear that Larry is moving forward!! I would LOVE to see a picture of him.

 

here ya go

 

something of a bed fail (this is the scary SB, BTW):

 

 

on the offending SB again:

 

the aforementioned roach (this one's kind of a fail):

 

After a looooong night

 

my cutie pie

[carronstar]

He is a doll! I love that picture where he is covering his manly bits.

[MachosMom]

Awww yay Larry! You are a cutie patootie pie!

[TwiggysMom]

Yay for Larry continuing to regain his confidence! Larry wouldn't be the first hound I've heard of with a fly phobia.

 

Love the roaching pictures!

[Guest LindsaySF]

[TINMANPDX]

Just checking in - glad larry is doing better. (Knocking on wood!)

[galgrey]

Hoping he's over the worst of it now.

[RaineysMom]

Just checking in - glad larry is doing better. (Knocking on wood!)

 

unfortunately, it was short lived he got off the Slumberball at around 3:00pm on Wednesday and is back to hiding. I had been keeping the stairs gated in the hopes he'd eventually get tired of being in the kitchen and come back in here, but no luck. I give up. I removed the gate, he can hide up there as much as he wants. He's perfectly fine when we're not in the house, like yesterday he came with to Nube's chemo re-check and was acting perfectly fine. Our adoption rep (who lives north of Milwaukee, she fostered him for 5 months before he came here) said they could take him over Labor Day weekend to see if he acts the same way there If he doesn't, THEN what? If he's not happy here, that's pretty bad.

 

I'm not so sure it's not physical now too. Yesterday mid day (and right now) he seemed like he couldn't get comfortable, he keeps getting up and turning around He's still getting 20mg of Pepcid every morning. I've got him back on his Canidae kibble with only a spoonful of pumpkin in it, keeping dairy away for now. He seems to be better when Bruce is home -- in fact, I went to the store to get more stuff for their food and was gone maybe 45 minutes, and when I came home he was on the Snuggleball with Bruce in the room with him. Bruce said he came right in and lay down. I'm wondering if it's ME he's afraid of??? I just don't know anymore. I am so frustrated and down over this.

 

my friend Susan is bringing Noelle (Nube's littermate) and her other grey Oscar tomorrow so maybe having 2 new dogs around will "snap" him out of it. If it doesn't, we're going to have an ultrasound done to see if there's something physically wrong (since he showed tenderness in his abdomen when he was at the vet last Thursday).

[JohnF]

See if you can read and work Turid Rugass's Calming Signals on that poor dog. (in link). If he is worried he will be doing a lot of licking, avoiding eye contact, giving you the scared rabbit eye and tail tucking. Also you must ensure that you are not blocking his exist from any room that you are in. You could even send Turid Rugass an email - she helped me with Peggy to realise that I was reinforcing Peggys fears about an elderly member of the family.

 

http://www.canis.no/rugaas/onearticle.php?artid=1

[cleptogrey]

"Our adoption rep (who lives north of Milwaukee, she fostered him for 5 months before he came here) said they could take him over Labor Day weekend to see if he acts the same way there If he doesn't, THEN what? "

 

cross one bridge at a time. hope for the best, and it's great that he can return to a place where people know what he was really like and they can have input and access the situation.

[Rustyroo]

Hi Kim, I've been following your situation with Larry. How is he doing this weekend?

[MachosMom]

Checking in on Larry also. How is it going?

[RaineysMom]

Friday night got worse as both boys were attacted by our neighbor's dogs -- all are ok but it was pretty bad and shook him up even more than he already is

 

our friend Susan (who has Nube's sister Noelle and also her male Oscar) came down from Madison on Saturday, stayed the night -- he was back to "normal" pretty much while they were here but back to "hiding" again as soon as they left.

 

and last night I was sitting in my chair (that I was on that Tuesday when I swatted the flies) and a fly lit onto Bruce's soda can so I just waved my hand over the can to shoo it away and he startled and got off his Slumberball and hid in the dining room so pretty sure this is all over that incident. He's always been SO unflappable, this is just insane that swatting a lousy fly would cause all of this.

 

last Wednesday, he was laying on the SB and all I did was pick up the sale ads (newspaper) and he startled and left the room to hide upstairs. Then, a little later, I was reading one of the ads and the paper rustled a little and suddenly he was standing at the top of the stairs looking startled at me (then he went back and hid).

 

does anyone have a suggestion on how to maybe stop this fear? we tried (a week or so ago?) giving him a treat every time I fake swatted exactly where I did the first time (he was on the SB) and after 3 times he'd had enough and got up and left to hide (tried to show that me swatting was a GOOD thing since he got tasty treats).

 

knock on wood, he's been fine in the morning, in fact he roached for me on the SB around 11am and I gave him lots of scritchies. But immediately after lunch, he runs up and hides on the landing. Once Bruce is home, he seems a bit braver and will lay on the SB for a bit in the evening (but hid in the dining room a lot last night after I shooed the fly). And seems perfectly happy to be in the living room if I'm not home

 

[MachosMom]

Oh man! I dont have any suggestions for desensitizing him just lots of prayers and positive vibes for you and him. I know this is heart breaking and frustrating for you also.

[Hollis]

Since it seems that there's a little straw grasping here.....PLEASE take this with an open mind...

 

Have YOU changed anything about YOU? Perfume? Deoderant? Lotions? Shampoo? Have you changed our diet?

And.....and I know this is a stretch.....when was the last time YOU had a physical? Maybe he is sensing something with you?

 

I truly hope you can figure it out. I used to love bringing Maci to work, but I also have a fly issue there and now she hides under my desk when she comes. Not good for either of us so I dont bring her any more.

[Rustyroo]

How's Larry doing?

[krissn333]

Wondering how Larry is doing...I'm also wondering if your stress over Nube might have been affecting Larry...

[MachosMom]

Checking in here too on Larry. (((hugs)))

[carronstar]

Checking to see how Larry is doing.

[RaineysMom]

HI guys, thanks for checking up on our Lare Bear.

 

he's doing pretty good (knock on wood) -- he still "disappears" to the upstairs landing most afternoons, and I cannot read the paper or even a book if he's in the living room with us (it's fine in any other room!). And God forbid a fly comes in the room when he's in here (like last night) -- he freaks out and gets up and leaves us as soon as he sees or hears it.

 

I'm back to feeding him some of the homemade along with his kibble, since we know it wasn't anything physical or a food intolerance, it was all the fly swatting. I'm glad he can eat it because I have a LOT of it left from Nube in the freezer

 

maybe by next year, after a winter with hopefully no flies, he'll have forgotten all this.

 

as far as how he's doing with Nube gone, I can tell he's sad, lonely and misses him. He's been whining a lot too I didn't think Larry cared about Nube that much but I guess he really did. I know he looked to him for a lot of his confidence, too. He was such a good boy the whole time Nube was sick, I know he knew he had to be extra good for Nube.

 

I still have to post Nube's remembrance, it's just so hard to do. Larry and I rode over to the vet and picked up Nube's ashes a couple hours ago. They also gave me the Rainbow Bridge story on a sheet of blue paper, with prints of his 2 front paw prints on it, I thought that was very nice.

 

thanks again for checking in!

[TheFullHouse]

I've noticed fewer flies around now so hopefully they will disappear soon and he'll have a few months fly free.

[carronstar]

Wishing fly free months for Larry. Hugs to you.

[Guest paulk]

Hello,

 

First off, Just to dsay I have been a greytalk user for years but don't post much so my accounts tend to get purged after a while. I just wanted to respond to this thread so I signed up again.

 

In my observations, Greyhounds are VERY in tune with their family and without a doubt key in on behaviors, emotions, etc and connect those things to their own lives. In my own experience, I am regularly amazed at how my greyhound really focuses on me and feeds off of my behaviors as a means of orienting himself to the world and understanding "what is going on" at any given moment.

 

As an example in my own life: my dog is either annoyed or jealous of my laptop because (I think) when it comes out, he knows that he won't get any attention. It used to be that he would put his head between me and the screen to "put himself" back into my world. Years later though, he just watches me pull out the laptop and seems to say, "Nuts to that!" and he goes upstairs to lay in my bed.

 

I watch "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" which has very distincitve and suddem theme music. I eventually started using that theme music as my ringtone. Eventually, Tiger noticed that when my phone rang, I would use my "talking to people" voice and would almost always jump up and talk and then often leave the house to help either do something in response to the call or to put the phone away. Soon, when the theme would play on the TV, he would jump into action mode as if I were jumping into action mode if the phone had rung. However, I would continue to lay there (since I was watching the show and not answering the phone) and he would get confused and stare at me waiting for me to "do the thing I'm supposed to do when the music plays."

 

Last story, I moved into a new home years ago that had a ceiling fan in every room. We were in the house for almost a year with no problems and then once just like that, he noticed the reflection of the TV in the brass bits of the living room ceiling fan. He jumped up in fear and proceeded to run from room to room to escape the fans but noticing that there was a fan in that room too! NONE of the fans were on and it was all related to the fan in the LR with the brass bits reflecting the TV. He eventually hid under the dining room table. THis fear went on for days until I finally decided he needed to get up there and meet the fan face to face and see that it wasn't some monster waiting to get him. I lifeted him up to the fan and he gave it a sniff and since then he has no fear and totally ignores them even if they are on.

 

So okay. About your situation. IMHO, you have several things going on and they are all building on each other. Fist Larry lis annoyed by flies. Perhaps where he was there were a lot of flies and they tormented him and wouldn't let him rest so now he kills them proactively. Now, there is a good chance that he has recently been bitten by a spider or a horse fly and now associated that additional misery with his nemesis flies. He also sees YOU reacting to the flies and now he KNOWS that they are bad and to be avoided. On top of that, your quick reactions to the flies my be startling to him. You are feeding of of his behavior towards the flies and in reaction Larry is feeding off of your reaction.

 

As a result (and perhaps in addition to any discomfort he has from possibly being bitten), Larry's solution is to escape the flies and perhaps any distress from your actions when you're killing them. When your husband say Larry jump up into the air in response to a fly landing on him, that is perhaps a sign that in Larry's mind the flies are kicking it up a notch and getting to be too much (especially if he associates those flies with the pain from bites). Maybe he thinks these are a new breed of superfly.

 

Perhaps another part of it is the fact that you let him "clean up." If he hater the things and is killing them proactively, he eats them to get rid of them and because he can't use a fly swatter. Now you're giving them to him as a treat!

 

So, if this was me, I'd get the flies out of the house or use fly paper or a vacuum to keep the home a fly free zone. I would try to avoid reacting to the flies in a way that is unique to the flies (like the only time you slap the paper your reading down is to kill a fly) or if you make some comment or expression that is unique to your reaction to the flies. I would try to not react to an individual fly especially one that he has become aware of in a startling way. If one is at the window, get up and calmly let it out or suck it up in the vacuum. DON"T flail or swat at it, don't make a point of it or point it out to Larry. Don't use any loud or higher pitches verbal expressions that he can key in on. Make it as much of a non-event as you can until he starts figuring out you do not view the flies as a threat.

 

Lastly is time, it seems your activities are routine and time based which greyhounds are very attuned to as you have observed. These activities occurring regulalrly mean that Larry quickly realizes that "now is the time all this stuf starts happening so to avoid, I'll leave the room." Once that settles into an expectation, you'll have to work to undo that expectation.

 

One more thing, it could be that there is an additional trigger that occurring during the confluence of these events that because of those events, you are not noticing but Larry is. Like Tiger with the ceiling fans or the TV theme music, perhaps Larry is picking up on something that to him, means all these events are gonna go down and this puts him into a preemptive distress.

 

So in a nutshell (sorry this was so long), avoid becoming "excited" at the occurrence of flies or reacting in an excited manner. Avoid creating a timed "event" for example where evening family reading time means slapping papers, dead flies, loud exclamations or quick, tense actions. Look for potential triggers that you might miss bu that Larry might not. Is Jepardy on while you're reading and the daily double bell rings when all this other stuff goes down? Things like that.

 

Larry will always be annoyed at those flies but he will be less annoyed if he notices that you aren't bothered by them or have a calm simple solution to eliminating them. Let him see that you aren't bothered and hopefully he will learn to minimize his own bother.

 

Hope this helps,

--Paul

Edited December 12, 2012 by paulk

[RaineysMom]

hi Paul! thanks for all your insights I believe you're right that Larry is associating the newspaper sound with whatever happened that night (and I do believe it was a bite of some kind, since he had a big red welt on his belly the next day that I noticed).

 

I actually DID start using my dustbuster to vacuum up the flies that landed on the windows in the living room, since if one buzzed by him he'd get distressed. Thankfully, fly season is over here but to this day, I STILL cannot pick up a paper or magazine while in the living room if he's in there too -- he gets up and goes either upstairs or downstairs.

 

other than that, he's 100% back to normal and doesn't head up to the upstairs at all anymore, just stays with me in the kitchen or living room.

 

he did, however, react to flies while we were down in Florida (11/21 - 12/8) -- both times he was outside -- once at my sister's motorhome -- big skeeters came out and he didn't want to sit outside anymore so we put him and his bed in the car, he was fine (we were 5 feet away, sitting outside). The other time he was on his bed outside and we were sitting next to him, a fly landed on him and he wanted nothing more then to go inside (which we took him in). So he still has issues with them, but maybe by next spring he will have forgotten.

[Guest paulk]

"but maybe by next spring he will have forgotten."

 

If he is like my grey, probably not. My guy got spooked on a trail that we walk every day (and twice on weekend days) a couple years ago and to this day, if it is dusk or dark, he will not walk past a certain point. If it is daylight, he walks it no problem. But when the sun starts going down, its like he's looking for the boogey man behind every tree and he just won't walk without lots of coaxing.

 

WRT the paper, you might try letting him interact with it. Let him sniff it or tear at it or give it a litlle chew. Crumple it near him or tear it near him so he sees that its noises are natural and nothing to be afraid of. Don't be verbal with him or reward him just let him experience the paper and then put it back. Who knows, he likely has some connection to that sound. Perhaps he was hit with a rolled paper or like a child with autism, the noise grates on him. If it is like Tiger with my laptop, he maybe just doesn't like that you have another object of attention! As I type this Tiger is staring at me and whining. Oh, here he comes to say, "Enough with that thing!"

 

 

My Tiger loves being in the car. When I am working in the yard, I will open the door and he will go in the car and lay in there for hours. Once I was working on an old convertible that I had bought. We had never driven the car (it was an old junker) but I was working on it to try to get the top to go down and seal to keep the weather out. While I was working on it, he climbed into the back seat and just layed there watching the top open and close over and over. He never in his life saw such a thing and you could tell he was keeping a wary eye on it but he loves being in a car so much his wariness wouldn't keep him away! When I had the interior out of the car laying in pieces in the driveway, he went over and layed on the back seat parts.

 

I have no idea what he finds comforting about it but he just loves being in them and you can tell that he's relaxed being in there. Funny thing is that in every car he always sits in the same spot: driver's side back seat. The only exception was my single cab truck where he would lay across the bench seat.

 

Okay, signing off, Tiger is getting jealous! Good luck with Larry!