New rescue greyhound with relatively inexperienced owners

[hectors_new_dad]

Hi all,

My partner and I got our first dog just over two months ago, and he's a four year old ex racer from Ireland. He's a lovely, friendly dog who initially had some separation anxiety but he's greatly improved in just two months following advice we read online - to the extent we're now able to leave the house for a few hours in the evening and he'll sleep through! All in all, he's a very relaxed boy who is easy and very loving - we both adore him and he seems to know it.

There's a few behaviours we're still working on (i.e a small amount of barking and lunging at other dogs, but generally only if they approach him whilst he's on lead - so we keep him muzzled) and we know socialisation over time will likely fix this, but yesterday we saw a behaviour that so concerning / upsetting that we're really not sure what to make of it.

We went for a walk with friends who have a lurcher (they get on great!) and they had a run around, and afterwards we took him into a pub. He's been in pubs before, but generally is quite restless and nervous so we never keep him there for long. Yesterday however, he completely broke down. He got under a table and made a shriek that I've never heard from a dog before. He was visibly shaking, clearly petrified, to the extent he even seemed terrified of me. He was frozen and paralysed with fear and making noises that had half the people in the place coming over worried. The look on his face wasn't his usual 'I'm a little nervous panting', it was pure terror coupled with a frozen, submissive posture. 

We quickly removed him from the situation, walked him home (during which he continued to make aforementioned screaming noise every so often), and was entirely out of sorts for the rest of the day. It wasn't until our neighbour said it looked like an episode of PTSD that we even thought about it, but with hindsight, this was far beyond his usual nervous behaviour in new situations.

We were wondering if anyone could shed any light on this behaviour at all? Of course the the mind always jumps to the worst scenario, i.e he's been in an environment like a pub before and has been physically abused by drunk people, but perhaps its also just a new environment. We of course won't be taking him back to any pubs again because we never want to see him suffer like that - but it would be good to get some insight.

 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by hectors_new_dad

[greysmom]

Honestly, it could be a lot of things, that may or may not have anything to do with past exposure.  What it sounds like you have to me is a dog who is highly anxious in his "normal" state, and he had an episode of fear response to ... whatever  it was that scared him.  

In the greyhound world, we sometimes call those dogs "spooks."  It's not a learned behavior, but the result of genetics and brain chemistry that isn't right.  You can see evidence of this in his leash reactivity with other dogs.  He also may not respond readily to his name, be unable to calm himself after he goes over his anxiety threshold, refuses to take even very high value treats in stressful situations, engage in repetitive actions like pacing or licking, withdraws from household activity to spend time by himself.

If this sounds like your dog, I would urge you to do a search in Training and Behavior for the numerous threads on "spooks," and "anxiety."  We deal with this fairly frequently and there's a lot of information you can read through.  Even if not everything applies to your dog, there will be lots of tips and tricks and advice to help you help him.

Good luck!

[zimsmom]

Did he get bumped, foot stepped on anything physical that may have happened by accident? 

[BatterseaBrindl]

1 hour ago, zimsmom said:

Did he get bumped, foot stepped on anything physical that may have happened by accident? 

This was the first thing that came to my mind as well. 

The 'Greyhound Scream Of Death' (GSOD) is something that most Greyhound owners will hear a lot.   These hounds can be quite dramatic and the scream is often brought on by nothing more than a stubbed toe. 

That said, if your boy - what's his name?! -  has no visible injuries or lameness but is still acting a bit off, I would agree with Chris and research spooks and/or anxiety on this Health forum or the Training forum.  

[HeyRunDog]

You said he'd been running around with your friends lurcher. I just wonder if he's got a joint injury or a trapped nerve which manifested itself when he lay down on the pub floor. Run your hands gently all over him and make sure he can move all his joints fully, watch as he moves around and getting on and off his bed from a laying down position.

[Onyfalk]

Could have been a bee/wasp sting. It's wasp die off time here and those stings can be really sore. If the dog doesn't realise what happened then it's really scary for them too.

You could also look up 'trigger stacking', the basic idea is that your dog can only take a certain amount of stimulation (good and bad) before he gets overwhelmed. We have been doing the 'sexier than a squirrel challenge' by Absolute Dogs with our nervous girl. It's designed to help you get your dog off lead but we are mainly doing it to build confidence and trust. It's inexpensive and my hound thinks it's the most fun thing ever. 

Edited September 24, 2021 by Onyfalk