Dog is recently acting strangely

SingItOut

Hi all, well as the title suggests my nearly 3 year old rescue collieXspringer (sprollie) is acting strangely recently and quite honestly it's driving everyone in the house insane she's the sweetest dog and so protective apart from her recent antics. J

Some back ground: We adopted her when she was 6 months old, she was never toilet or crate trained by her foster mum and pretty much allowed to go toilet wherever she liked in that ladies house, she was rescued by that centre at 6 weeks old along with her 7 sisters. We had major problems for months trying to toilet train her, she'd constantly go toilet in her crate. I slept on the couch beside her crate for about 3 weeks to calm her. She started to love her crate and it's now her go to place. The toilet issue continued well into her second year and has now stopped. She's still quite a nervous dog in general, she runs at the littlest of noises and is petrified of the cats. She gets on well with my 6 year old terrier, also female. I took her to obedience training classes up until she was 2 years old and it did help a lot with her confidence building. She has always barked at everything and for every emotion which I've been told comes with the breed but I'm sure hers is not normal at all, it's like she becomes a dog possessed when excited or playing with toys!

For the past 6 months or so she's been refusing to go outside to do her last toilet before bed or go outside at all, she has to be picked up to be put out which I know isn't ideal. I've tried treat training her to go out but she's not interested. When we do get her to go out she might go get a drink then it's straight back to wanting to come inside. She can open the door so we have to lock it, she doesn't go to the toilet so we've woken up some mornings to pee all over her crate (both dogs sleep indoors at night). And now the major issue is when she is out outside she has started to scratch the door like a mad woman, it's a PVC door so all the white paint is turned silver with chunks gone out of it so of course my parents are going crazy and I can't blame them. I've tried ignoring her until she stops then I let her in a few minutes later to try teach her when she stops she can come in but it's not working.

I've checked the garden to see if she's afraid of anything out there because she does seem really anxious when she goes out (ears back, wide eyes, whining) but there's nothing out there. We leave the spot light on for them but it doesn't help either. Tonight I stood outside with her and she kept trying to push past me to get at the door to go back in, so she hasn't actually gone to toilet since 5pm this evening, it's now nearly 11:30! I tried playing games with her to see if she'd calm a little, she did but then starting barking with excitement so I had to bring her in out of respect for the neighbours, They did have a Kong toy for outside time but the terrier buried it :rolleyes: she gets walked and off lead runs every day for 3 hours without fail so I can't understand why she's so anxious and not doing as she's told anymore

Anybody got any advice? Before she and I are both thrown out of home :pac:

aonb

Can you put her leash on, and take her for a 5 minute walk to get her to pee before bed? Not ideal, but it would empty her bladder to prevent the pee in the crate?

Who knows with a nervous dog, what her issue with the garden is - some tiny noise, like a branch rubbing against the oil tank could have freaked her out (this happened with my friend!) and has made her stressy/nervous. Is she ok in the garden during daylight?

tk123

If it was Bailey I'd assume he got a fright from something outside? He was the same during renovations on the road (4 hours being done at the same time!) and also around Halloween and New Years when fireworks were going off. When he's sore he's much more noise sensitive and won't leave the house except to go to the loo (although we did have some poo accidents around Halloween when he was too afraid to go out) and then he's racing back in so maybe a vet check for your girl to rule anything medical out. Have you tried an anxiety shirt/wrap on her at all to see if it calms her?

SingItOut

aonb wrote: »

Can you put her leash on, and take her for a 5 minute walk to get her to pee before bed? Not ideal, but it would empty her bladder to prevent the pee in the crate?

Who knows with a nervous dog, what her issue with the garden is - some tiny noise, like a branch rubbing against the oil tank could have freaked her out (this happened with my friend!) and has made her stressy/nervous. Is she ok in the garden during daylight?

Thank you for your reply. We've tried the leash thing but she gets crazy excited and starts barking so we can't do that too late at night. I'll keep trying though, I've been trying to get her to be calmer at walk time and it's kind of working.

She's been fine outside all day snoozing and playing with her toys, she scratched the door once and was told to stop and she did. I think it's really a night time issue whatever happened with her

SingItOut

tk123 wrote: »

Have you tried an anxiety shirt/wrap on her at all to see if it calms her?

I did think at first that she may have hurt herself but she's fine outside during the day and has no problems running off lead on her walk. I'll make an appointment for her though just to be on the safe side.

I haven't tried a thunder shirt on her yet, my terrier had one so I'll dig it out and give it a try. Allie is quite slim and small so it should fit her. Thank you for you're help

aonb

so the dog is fine in the yard, during the day. Its only at night that she is anxious/stressed in the yard?
Is there a light out there, yours or nearby, that is making a buzzing noise?
Did a house alarm go off while she was out there at night - something may have happened outside at night which frightened her, which she associates with the darkness and being outside
Did she get locked outside at night at any stage - can she think she wont be allowed back in?
You said that shes afraid of cats - cats being nocturnal animals could be around a good bit more at night - maybe shes seen them on your perimeters when shes been outside, or she can smell them nearby?

Dont know what to tell you except that I would keep bringing her for her short toilet walks every night before bed, to prevent the wetting in the crate - she will hopefully stop barking if you are worried about upsetting the neighbours if she gets into a walk at night routine - you shouldnt let her see that you are getting ready for a walk then rush her out the door and onto the street before she knows what hit her! You could distract her with extra special treats in your fist - make her force her nose into your hand to get a tiny treat, to distract her & get her out the door for the "toilet walk" without barking

Similarly when you let her out into the yard in the dark, bring some special treates - take her out for 2 seconds give her a treat, take her back in - before she can start whining at the door. Every night increase the time outside by giving her 1 more treat, then back in.
Altermatively, or maybe at some stage in the evening, try to put her on the leash, walk her around the perimeter of the garden, reassuring her all the time, giver her a treat then straight back into the house.
There is obviously something frightening her out there in the dark - you have to get her to disassociate the dark+garden = fear

SingItOut

Our cats sometimes sleep indoors and then outdoors but their houses are separated from where the dogs can see them or get near them. Allie is "brave" when their sitting on the other side of the gate but when they come in Allie hides in the shed and peeks out at them. I've stood outside with her and have our spot light on which lights the full garden. It's an extremely quiet neighbourhood and I haven't heard anything the last few nights I've been out with her. I really can't think of what might have scared her.

I tried taking her out on the lead tonight and she was having none of it, it's very frustrating and hard to see her so scared to go out. I'll just have to try to keep building her confidence.

Update: I took her out to the front garden instead and she went out no problem and went to the toilet. It's much more dark out the front. She's now asleep on the sofa. The next task is to find out what happened in the back garden...

Cherry Blossom

I think I read somewhere that Collies can be reactive to shadows. Could that be it?

SingItOut

Not that I've noticed adrenalin junkie but I have heard that before. Shes reactive to most things, she's nervous but curious of things if that makes sense?

VonVix

Maybe she saw an animal of some sort out there during the night one time when she was out, now she has it in her head that it's out there lurking somewhere?

Have you tried acting the maggot outside when it's starting to get dark? Not when it's completely dark but dusk is settling in, then stay out for a while and play with her?

SingItOut

VonVix wrote: »

Have you tried acting the maggot outside when it's starting to get dark? Not when it's completely dark but dusk is settling in, then stay out for a while and play with her?

Yes, and she got really excited and started barking she hasn't been scratching the door this evening though. She's currently inside asleep but I'll wearing her out inside playing games then see if she'll go out the back. If not then I'll take her out the front, she had no issues in the front garden. Their both behind a gate in the back garden so the front garden is always more exciting to them.

I think Everyone is right in saying that something has spooked her in the back garden. Thanks everyone for your help and advice !