My dog has been acting strangely for the last few weeks. She is hypersensitive to sounds such as the telephone ringing. She has also not been eating. She has been carrying a stuffed duck around and has been whining and whimpering alot but she does not seem to be in pain. Any ideas what this could be? She destroyed our telephone. She seems very uneasy.
Thank you
Patty
Karen Stacy says:
February 23rd, 2009 at 01:48 PM
This sounds very much like a behavioral issue. If I had to guess, I would say your dog got scared by something. The telephone (or its ringing) obviously remind her of it. Carrying the toy, whining, whimpering, panting, scratching, shaking, a change in body posture, excessive salivation, dilated pupils and fear reactions are all signs that your dog is experiencing some stress.
The first step is to find out what scared her and why. Then you can use desensitization and reintroduction techniques to get her comfortable again. This includes slowly introducing her to the scary stimulus and re-associating it with something good instead of something bad. For instance, if the phone rings, give her a really nice treat. Start this in another room of the house, so she's far enough away from the scary thing that she is not under so much stress she cannot even accept a treat, and slowly move her closer to the sound.
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