p87
Well-Known Member
This is very long, please bear with me!
I have a female border collie, 3 years old. Before I am hit with the usual 'she isn't exercised enough' comments that I see on 90% of collie related posts, yes she gets plenty of exercise and that has nothing to do with it. She is very happy out on walks and shows none of what I am concerned about while out on a walk. Although I honestly don't believe a collie can ever have 'enough' exercise, I would love to borrow some of her energy for myself
About a year ago she developed a limp on her right hind, she wouldn't put her foot on the ground at all. We couldn't find ANYTHING physically wrong and she was given painkillers as she was obviously in pain. They didn't seem to do anything and it went away after a couple of months. She wasn't hopping lame this whole time - she would go through phases of being hopping lame, just looking a bit stiff and being completely fine.
A year on it's started again, same as the above, though this time she is yelping in pain while she is hopping lame. But again, one minute she is in clear excruciating pain, and the next is 100% fine, bounding around, her usual self. She has gone off her food (fussy eater anyway, read on to see why) and is being sick more than a few times a week. No blood or bits of food, more like bile.
In the past 6 months or so she has become unbelievably needy, and has gradually turned into a nervous wreck. She won't even make eye contact, she looks away as if she has been caught doing something wrong. She snarls at people she has known all her life, though doesn't make any noise, just lip curls, but as soon as she is given a clap she is fine again. I don't condone this behaviour whatsoever, I don't want her thinking she has to snarl to get attention, so when she does it people are told to ignore her until she stops, which she does after a couple of minutes.
She slinks and creeps around the place, like she is tip toeing so as not to be heard, and to be perfectly honest if you saw her you would think she is abused from the way she is behaving. She does this thing where if someone comes in who she loves and is desperate to speak to she will curl her lip, wag her tail, have a pleading 'please touch me' look in her eyes and make a strange chirping noise - all at the same time. When she eventually creeps over while doing all of this she will bury her head in the person and lie all of her weight on them, as if something terrible has just happened and she is 'leaning' on them for safety. So she is showing all the signs of nervousness, fear, happiness and excitement all at once. It's bizarre to watch.
She isn't abused, neglected or had an accident or a frightening experience. She lives in the family home with myself and my three year old, with my boyfriend staying over a couple of nights a week. She doesn't snarl at me or my son, but will at my boyfriend (who she has known for most of her life) if she hasn't seen him in a while. She is then visibly devastated when he ignores her and promptly stops it. She is well socialised with people and other animals, and only behaves like this when people approach HER.
She won't leave her bed unless it's to go out, she doesn't behave like a normal dog any more, it's like she doesn't want to be part of the family.
It's suddenly got EXTREME. She is a completely different dog to the one she was a year ago. She doesn't even prick her ears up with excitement any more or look remotely interested in anything. Her eyes say - nervous, unhappy, dull.
The only thing I can think of that may have triggered it is about a year ago I stopped a couple of friends from taking her walks. They would take her quite a lot, treated her as if I neglected her and completely spoiled her. I am fairly strict with her, I don't allow jumping up, pulling on the lead, running off wherever she likes on walks, sitting on furniture, I expect her to follow a command on the first command, not think it's hysterical that she is ignoring me etc and when she went out with them she was sickeningly babied and allowed to do whatever she wanted. They fed her full of utter rubbish, to the point that she stopped eating her dog food and essentially starved herself so she could binge when she went out with them - at Greggs apparently. Hence why now she has become a fussy eater. I explained this to them and made it clear she was not to be fed a single thing except from me, but as soon as I mentioned the fact she was starving herself until she saw them that made me the bad guy again and so she was fed even more.
She was allowed up on furniture, allowed to jump up on people, allowed to sit on the car seats WHINING with excitement about where she was going - basically everything I asked them not to allow was ignored. I don't think I am being mean, but dogs need discipline, and they need to know their place within the family and around humans. Two years worth of work from when I got her as a pup was completely destroyed. She wouldn't even come to my call any more, and when I spoke to her she would turn her head away from me and blatantly ignore me. She started rolling on her back and peeing whenever I spoke to her as if she was expecting to be battered - I have never lifted my hand to her - and would NOT move from off the floor.
Her behaviour got so appalling I put a stop to them taking her out, after several ignored warnings. As far as I'm concerned I done the right thing, everyone was so shocked at how badly behaved she had become, it was so noticeable.
This was when the constant whining, crying and refusing to leave her bed started. The way I see it is she had been given a taster of the life she preferred and so refused to be 'my' dog any more. This was over a year ago, so surely by now she should be getting over it, if that is the cause behind all of this?
I went back to square one with the training, having to start from scratch after all my hard work was devastating. We used to be stopped out on walks by 9 people out of 10 to be complimented on how well behaved she was, people would even ask where I got her professionally trained, so you can imagine my upset at having to start all over again - this is how bad she had become.
She DOES see me as her master again, she is back to being a good, well behaved, (almost!) impeccably trained dog and she protects us. She knows her place in the family and apart from when she is having these nervous wreck episodes she seems happy. It's almost as if she has periods of being her happy self and the rest of the time she behaves like an abused and neglected bag of nerves.
We can't see anything physically wrong with her, even though she is off her food she isn't losing any weight. She has been given a calmer (to help with nerves) and something to line her stomach in case she maybe has an ulcer (being sick, off her food, fidgets a lot as if she is uncomfortable or sore). The vet can't find anything which could be causing the severe lameness. I've wondered if maybe she has a knot or something in her back which is intermittently pressing on a nerve to make her so lame? Looking at the way she behaves when she slinks/creeps/snarls/wags her tail/chirps all at once I'm thinking there might be something neurologically wrong? It is the strangest thing and I've never seen it before.
I genuinely believe that this is a mental issue, not a physical one. I think it is behavioural since it all started after I stopped my friends taking her out, but instead of getting better she is getting worse.
Has anyone got any ideas or been through similar? I've to take her back to the vet in three weeks and if there is no improvement then we will go down the route of scoping/x-rays, testing for food intolerances and whatnot. She doesn't need to see a behaviourist, I am perfectly capable of training her and having her behave by myself, these are just random episodes she is having. And I am certainly not going down the route of having her get attached to another person for fear of what happened with my friends happening again. She doesn't get to pick and choose who she prefers and behave accordingly with each person!
Sorry for such a long post, but I am at my wits end with it all! I'm hoping someone might be able to help!
I have a female border collie, 3 years old. Before I am hit with the usual 'she isn't exercised enough' comments that I see on 90% of collie related posts, yes she gets plenty of exercise and that has nothing to do with it. She is very happy out on walks and shows none of what I am concerned about while out on a walk. Although I honestly don't believe a collie can ever have 'enough' exercise, I would love to borrow some of her energy for myself
About a year ago she developed a limp on her right hind, she wouldn't put her foot on the ground at all. We couldn't find ANYTHING physically wrong and she was given painkillers as she was obviously in pain. They didn't seem to do anything and it went away after a couple of months. She wasn't hopping lame this whole time - she would go through phases of being hopping lame, just looking a bit stiff and being completely fine.
A year on it's started again, same as the above, though this time she is yelping in pain while she is hopping lame. But again, one minute she is in clear excruciating pain, and the next is 100% fine, bounding around, her usual self. She has gone off her food (fussy eater anyway, read on to see why) and is being sick more than a few times a week. No blood or bits of food, more like bile.
In the past 6 months or so she has become unbelievably needy, and has gradually turned into a nervous wreck. She won't even make eye contact, she looks away as if she has been caught doing something wrong. She snarls at people she has known all her life, though doesn't make any noise, just lip curls, but as soon as she is given a clap she is fine again. I don't condone this behaviour whatsoever, I don't want her thinking she has to snarl to get attention, so when she does it people are told to ignore her until she stops, which she does after a couple of minutes.
She slinks and creeps around the place, like she is tip toeing so as not to be heard, and to be perfectly honest if you saw her you would think she is abused from the way she is behaving. She does this thing where if someone comes in who she loves and is desperate to speak to she will curl her lip, wag her tail, have a pleading 'please touch me' look in her eyes and make a strange chirping noise - all at the same time. When she eventually creeps over while doing all of this she will bury her head in the person and lie all of her weight on them, as if something terrible has just happened and she is 'leaning' on them for safety. So she is showing all the signs of nervousness, fear, happiness and excitement all at once. It's bizarre to watch.
She isn't abused, neglected or had an accident or a frightening experience. She lives in the family home with myself and my three year old, with my boyfriend staying over a couple of nights a week. She doesn't snarl at me or my son, but will at my boyfriend (who she has known for most of her life) if she hasn't seen him in a while. She is then visibly devastated when he ignores her and promptly stops it. She is well socialised with people and other animals, and only behaves like this when people approach HER.
She won't leave her bed unless it's to go out, she doesn't behave like a normal dog any more, it's like she doesn't want to be part of the family.
It's suddenly got EXTREME. She is a completely different dog to the one she was a year ago. She doesn't even prick her ears up with excitement any more or look remotely interested in anything. Her eyes say - nervous, unhappy, dull.
The only thing I can think of that may have triggered it is about a year ago I stopped a couple of friends from taking her walks. They would take her quite a lot, treated her as if I neglected her and completely spoiled her. I am fairly strict with her, I don't allow jumping up, pulling on the lead, running off wherever she likes on walks, sitting on furniture, I expect her to follow a command on the first command, not think it's hysterical that she is ignoring me etc and when she went out with them she was sickeningly babied and allowed to do whatever she wanted. They fed her full of utter rubbish, to the point that she stopped eating her dog food and essentially starved herself so she could binge when she went out with them - at Greggs apparently. Hence why now she has become a fussy eater. I explained this to them and made it clear she was not to be fed a single thing except from me, but as soon as I mentioned the fact she was starving herself until she saw them that made me the bad guy again and so she was fed even more.
She was allowed up on furniture, allowed to jump up on people, allowed to sit on the car seats WHINING with excitement about where she was going - basically everything I asked them not to allow was ignored. I don't think I am being mean, but dogs need discipline, and they need to know their place within the family and around humans. Two years worth of work from when I got her as a pup was completely destroyed. She wouldn't even come to my call any more, and when I spoke to her she would turn her head away from me and blatantly ignore me. She started rolling on her back and peeing whenever I spoke to her as if she was expecting to be battered - I have never lifted my hand to her - and would NOT move from off the floor.
Her behaviour got so appalling I put a stop to them taking her out, after several ignored warnings. As far as I'm concerned I done the right thing, everyone was so shocked at how badly behaved she had become, it was so noticeable.
This was when the constant whining, crying and refusing to leave her bed started. The way I see it is she had been given a taster of the life she preferred and so refused to be 'my' dog any more. This was over a year ago, so surely by now she should be getting over it, if that is the cause behind all of this?
I went back to square one with the training, having to start from scratch after all my hard work was devastating. We used to be stopped out on walks by 9 people out of 10 to be complimented on how well behaved she was, people would even ask where I got her professionally trained, so you can imagine my upset at having to start all over again - this is how bad she had become.
She DOES see me as her master again, she is back to being a good, well behaved, (almost!) impeccably trained dog and she protects us. She knows her place in the family and apart from when she is having these nervous wreck episodes she seems happy. It's almost as if she has periods of being her happy self and the rest of the time she behaves like an abused and neglected bag of nerves.
We can't see anything physically wrong with her, even though she is off her food she isn't losing any weight. She has been given a calmer (to help with nerves) and something to line her stomach in case she maybe has an ulcer (being sick, off her food, fidgets a lot as if she is uncomfortable or sore). The vet can't find anything which could be causing the severe lameness. I've wondered if maybe she has a knot or something in her back which is intermittently pressing on a nerve to make her so lame? Looking at the way she behaves when she slinks/creeps/snarls/wags her tail/chirps all at once I'm thinking there might be something neurologically wrong? It is the strangest thing and I've never seen it before.
I genuinely believe that this is a mental issue, not a physical one. I think it is behavioural since it all started after I stopped my friends taking her out, but instead of getting better she is getting worse.
Has anyone got any ideas or been through similar? I've to take her back to the vet in three weeks and if there is no improvement then we will go down the route of scoping/x-rays, testing for food intolerances and whatnot. She doesn't need to see a behaviourist, I am perfectly capable of training her and having her behave by myself, these are just random episodes she is having. And I am certainly not going down the route of having her get attached to another person for fear of what happened with my friends happening again. She doesn't get to pick and choose who she prefers and behave accordingly with each person!
Sorry for such a long post, but I am at my wits end with it all! I'm hoping someone might be able to help!
