Why does a friendly dog become so over-excited that he can’t stop himself jumping, barking or reacting? Much of Blue’s early life was spent in a crate after he and his brother began to fight. He was rehomed. Next he was in another bad situation before being taken in by Read more
His jumping up is a bit crazy, his licking of people a bit manic, he barks at ‘everything’, he sometimes tail-chases when particularly frustrated and he is obsessed with balls.
Many humans feel it’s the right thing to do to play wildly exciting games (‘but the dogs love it’) or give manic greetings to dogs. They don’t understand that they may be pumping them up to such a degree that something eventually will have to give. It’s hard to convince people that it’s kinder to wait and respond to the dogs only when they are reasonably calm.
Rocky had spent much of the time as a puppy left all alone, outside in a small yard, an environment the lonely puppy will have found scary. Unsurprisingly he barked constantly with probably a mix of fear and loneliness; nobody will have helped him out and it would be a safe guess that he would have been shouted at for barking.
Mikey is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier mixed with something else – he looks very much like Pit Bull. Mikey is nervous and jumpy.
A week or so ago Leo was adopted by his new family. He has a lot of adjusting to do. He is easily aroused and has a great deal of pent-up stress. If people come and go he will start to spin and tail chase, and often does this seemingly for no reason at all.
He felt absolutely terrible when he discovered that all the mess wasn’t done by Chloe. They had had a break in and poor Chloe was traumatised. Where before she was distressed at being alone, now she was also terrified of her owner coming back.
When she gets home it takes her a long time to unwind – she is even more manic than when she started out. This is a clear indication that the walks are doing her no good at all. It’s a case of ‘less is more’ for the time being.
It was hard to take a photo of Tiny because he never remained still for long enough in the entire three hours I was there today. The little Jack Russell is one of the most stressed little dogs I have seen. Tail-chasing ritual Tiny has a tail-chasing ritual that is more or Read more