Galupy
Well-Known Member
I need some advice/opinions/experiences please from you AAD gurus. It's about my beagle Dakota - I suspect there is something going on with him but I can't quite put my finger on what it is.
Some background, we've had him for going on four years now. He is eight years old. Came from a family who knew his breeder. They gave him to a family who pretty much almost straight away surrendered him to a shelter. His original family saw him on an adoptable dogs listing and went to get him. He remained with them until they surrendered him and two other beagles to a local rescue group. He came to us as a foster dog for that local group when he growled at everyone in his original foster home. He never left us. He was the third dog in the house after Willie and Bella who we'd had for around two years. Dakota is a lovely little dog. Affectionate and sweet, pretty responsive to training, etc. (he had none when he came to us and quickly mastered all the basics except for "come"
). He was unsocialised with people and animals when we first got him having lived outside and been ignored for most of his life I think and we worked with a behaviourist at that time to get him help. He remains pretty fearful about both, however. He can and does meet people now as long as it is on his terms - quiet and non-threatening, etc. and as long as we can trust them not to pressure him. We've never been able to crack the dog issue and to be honest focus more on the people thing so we manage that side of things as best we can. Luckily for us around these parts we can really limit how many other dogs he meets and when we need to be around them like at the vet we really focus him on training while sat waiting and he does very well even with other big dogs by him. He also wears a gentle leader and that works to keep him right by us. He has never, ever, shown any kind of aggression to me or my OH so I'm never worried that he will do something with us. I can literally do anything to the dog and he accepts it (by this I mean nails, accidentally bumping into him or standing on his paw types of things). He does still on occasion have issues with our other two, growling and such every so often. They fight very rarely but it does happen. Mostly him and Willie - a boy dog thing I think. He's in okay health. He has thyroid issues which he takes medication for and has since we got the diagnosis a few months after we took him in. It was untreated up to that point. Other than that he stress licks his paws on occasion but it is also generally under control as well. He is well-walked and loves his walks (he had also never been walked before he came to us - we had to teach him how to walk on a lead and as we know he doesn't "come" we know they weren't walking him off it) being the only one of the three who scratches at the door to go on one when we get the leads out (the other two are like - yeah, a walk, we know we go on them and enjoy them but we have come to expect them so we're not going to get all excited about it and waste energy we could use running once we're out there).
So when I say that I suspect something isn't right with him, my thoughts are that he either has some eyesight problems or some mental cognizance issues. I have had suspicions before about his eyesight and asked the vet to check it - our regular vet that is - and reported no issues that he can see so we kind of let it go. That was a couple of years ago. He doesn't bump into anything and appears to see at least some of the time because he will be attentive to us and I have seen him watch something a distance way (it was a horse actually - schooling in an outdoor school a field away) but there are occasions that he "misses" something going on that you would expect him to be interested in - like a critter running across the path on our walks or the other two getting treats from me on a walk - so it makes me wonder if a lot of his attentiveness is hearing or nose based (he does, after all, have that wonderful beagle nose to help him out) or that he maybe sees partially. Case in point, over the weekend I was giving him a cuddle and he was pawing at my hand to rub his belly
rolleyes but at the same time he was just staring into the distance. It looked like some kind of avoidance issue which he will do to block out the other two dogs sometimes but usually not with us. There were no other dogs around. It got me thinking again that something might be up so I waved my hand in front of his face and no reaction whatsoever. I did it a lot and nothing ... no flinch, blink, nothing. He continued to stare off into the distance. It was extremely strange and did make me think something was going on. I rubbed his muzzle and he kind of snapped out of it, seemed surprised by it, but leaned into me for more (he loves a good muzzle scritching).
I'm not sure what advice I need. Maybe other experiences with eyesight issues or whether this kind of blanking is some kind of cognizance issue like a seizure or something or "just" behavioural. I'm kind of at a loss but I've learned to trust my gut in these kinds of things and it's telling me something is wrong. I just can't pinpoint what.
Dakota is due for shots and is going to the vet again for them this weekend so I'm going to raise this again but would also love some thoughts because I don't think it is going to be as easy as the vet checking his eyes and finding something. He is a good vet though. He takes us at our word when we tell him we suspect something so I know he will act if we can give him the information he needs.
Any ideas or am I being silly? If it is just the way he is and I'm being silly, that is fine too. I just don't want to miss something that could make his life easier/better for him. I would post a gratuitous picture but maybe instead just follow the link in my siggie and vote for him in the AADNE calendar compD). Go on, you know you want to ...
Wow, sorry this is so long. Dog treats all around for those dogs you've ignored while reading this ...
Some background, we've had him for going on four years now. He is eight years old. Came from a family who knew his breeder. They gave him to a family who pretty much almost straight away surrendered him to a shelter. His original family saw him on an adoptable dogs listing and went to get him. He remained with them until they surrendered him and two other beagles to a local rescue group. He came to us as a foster dog for that local group when he growled at everyone in his original foster home. He never left us. He was the third dog in the house after Willie and Bella who we'd had for around two years. Dakota is a lovely little dog. Affectionate and sweet, pretty responsive to training, etc. (he had none when he came to us and quickly mastered all the basics except for "come"
). He was unsocialised with people and animals when we first got him having lived outside and been ignored for most of his life I think and we worked with a behaviourist at that time to get him help. He remains pretty fearful about both, however. He can and does meet people now as long as it is on his terms - quiet and non-threatening, etc. and as long as we can trust them not to pressure him. We've never been able to crack the dog issue and to be honest focus more on the people thing so we manage that side of things as best we can. Luckily for us around these parts we can really limit how many other dogs he meets and when we need to be around them like at the vet we really focus him on training while sat waiting and he does very well even with other big dogs by him. He also wears a gentle leader and that works to keep him right by us. He has never, ever, shown any kind of aggression to me or my OH so I'm never worried that he will do something with us. I can literally do anything to the dog and he accepts it (by this I mean nails, accidentally bumping into him or standing on his paw types of things). He does still on occasion have issues with our other two, growling and such every so often. They fight very rarely but it does happen. Mostly him and Willie - a boy dog thing I think. He's in okay health. He has thyroid issues which he takes medication for and has since we got the diagnosis a few months after we took him in. It was untreated up to that point. Other than that he stress licks his paws on occasion but it is also generally under control as well. He is well-walked and loves his walks (he had also never been walked before he came to us - we had to teach him how to walk on a lead and as we know he doesn't "come" we know they weren't walking him off it) being the only one of the three who scratches at the door to go on one when we get the leads out (the other two are like - yeah, a walk, we know we go on them and enjoy them but we have come to expect them so we're not going to get all excited about it and waste energy we could use running once we're out there).So when I say that I suspect something isn't right with him, my thoughts are that he either has some eyesight problems or some mental cognizance issues. I have had suspicions before about his eyesight and asked the vet to check it - our regular vet that is - and reported no issues that he can see so we kind of let it go. That was a couple of years ago. He doesn't bump into anything and appears to see at least some of the time because he will be attentive to us and I have seen him watch something a distance way (it was a horse actually - schooling in an outdoor school a field away) but there are occasions that he "misses" something going on that you would expect him to be interested in - like a critter running across the path on our walks or the other two getting treats from me on a walk - so it makes me wonder if a lot of his attentiveness is hearing or nose based (he does, after all, have that wonderful beagle nose to help him out) or that he maybe sees partially. Case in point, over the weekend I was giving him a cuddle and he was pawing at my hand to rub his belly
rolleyes but at the same time he was just staring into the distance. It looked like some kind of avoidance issue which he will do to block out the other two dogs sometimes but usually not with us. There were no other dogs around. It got me thinking again that something might be up so I waved my hand in front of his face and no reaction whatsoever. I did it a lot and nothing ... no flinch, blink, nothing. He continued to stare off into the distance. It was extremely strange and did make me think something was going on. I rubbed his muzzle and he kind of snapped out of it, seemed surprised by it, but leaned into me for more (he loves a good muzzle scritching).I'm not sure what advice I need. Maybe other experiences with eyesight issues or whether this kind of blanking is some kind of cognizance issue like a seizure or something or "just" behavioural. I'm kind of at a loss but I've learned to trust my gut in these kinds of things and it's telling me something is wrong. I just can't pinpoint what.
Dakota is due for shots and is going to the vet again for them this weekend so I'm going to raise this again but would also love some thoughts because I don't think it is going to be as easy as the vet checking his eyes and finding something. He is a good vet though. He takes us at our word when we tell him we suspect something so I know he will act if we can give him the information he needs.
Any ideas or am I being silly? If it is just the way he is and I'm being silly, that is fine too. I just don't want to miss something that could make his life easier/better for him. I would post a gratuitous picture but maybe instead just follow the link in my siggie and vote for him in the AADNE calendar comp
D). Go on, you know you want to ...Wow, sorry this is so long. Dog treats all around for those dogs you've ignored while reading this ...
but with careful management she is coping fine and seems very happy. She is going a bit senile, now whether that is just down to her age or because something else is going on I don't know.