Scaredy Dog!

[ZekeZira]

Zeke has become very wary and scared of odd things - most notably, the bathrooms and laundry room in our house. Has anyone ever heard of such a weird thing?! He will stand at the door and peer in but refuse to enter the room, even when being tempted with treats - and he is a very food motivated man. Nothing has happened to him in these rooms - they rarely let us out of sight so we are pretty much all together, all the time, and would know if he'd gotten hurt or badly startled. We are clueless! The laundry room has the same flooring as our kitchen and the two rooms are joined by a door that is always open, so I don't think it is a texture thing. They are both just pampered babies (aren't they all?) who have had nothing bad happen to them in their lives so I can't imagine what is going through his mind. Zira is just as bold as brass - not scared of a thing. Why on earth would this 74 lb big boy be scared to walk into a bathroom?!

 

[chrystel]

hi! oh i am sorry your boy is being a scaredy cat! :(

I have a scaredy cat too... and his fear went out of control last winter. Snatch is 7 years old and he became scared of the stupidest things.. like the noise of the balcony door, the noise of my husband shaving...

He has been scared of loud noises, strangers.. etc since young.. but suddenly last winter, he developped even more fears!

Until I went to the vet last srping and ask for a thryoid check up. Comes up that Snatch is low thyroid (borderline) - Thank you Boxerworld!! I would have NEVER suspected that!

He has been on meds since March 2011, dose readjusted April 2011.. and he is getting MUCH better!!
It is now a learned behaviour... loud noise out of the blue still scare him.. but he now enters the kitchen!!! (he was scared of the kitchen before..)

I would advise you to have your boy's thyroid check (insist if your vet thinks you're crazy ) - If I had known, i would have had Snatch's thyroid levels checked when he was much younger, and he may not have developped this learned scared behaviour...

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[Cami]

I second the thyroid issue as a potential suspect!
My girl, eventually diagnosed with thyroiditis (precursor to hypothyroidism), started reacting fearful to normal every day things she had been used to her entire life. Something as simple as the refrigerator kicking on or closing a cabinet door would set her off. Pacing, panting and just overall fearful. I couldn't get her attention to refocus on anything but her fear. She would literally have to just come out of it on her own. This went on for months until the diagnosis was made. Once meds were started it was literally within 24 hours that we noticed a huge change.
Search the health forum about thyroid issues. What to have tested, what to expect and other symptoms you might have just chalked up to something else (there are about 50 symptoms and dogs can have none, one or all of them).

 

[gearwrench]

I thought maybe something was terribly wrong with my puppy, as of late he is now afraid of hair clips, rain, solar garden lights, balloons, a random cat that comes through the yard. And these all come in strange phases! we had no power due to hurricane irene last week so a solar light worked great instead of using countless batteries, anytime i would pick up the light he would run for the hills! I thought maybe I was crazy! He comes to work with me here and there, and it never bothers him he usually hangs in the shade with all sorts of loud scary noises, none of these things scare him, but balloons???