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My dog won't leave my side today.


littleL_RN

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I have had my approximately 5 year old pitbull rescue since January 2009, and she has never behaved this way.

 

She is a very affectionate dog, but most of her day is spent sleeping in her dog bed.

 

I work from home during the weekends but leave for an hour or so to go to the gym. Since I've gotten back this morning, she has been right at my feet. She even layed right outside the shower stall on the bath mat while I was getting showered. Totally not baseline behavior for her.

 

I live in a multi-level house, and she's literally followed me up and down the stairs with every trip, when she usually just lounges and waits for me to come back up to my office. When I got ahead of her during one trip upstairs she even started whimpering a little, as if to say "Wait for me!"

 

I don't know if she is having an issue or she senses something wrong with me, but I'm frankly a little nervous! She ate and went out as usual today, so nothing seems off course in that regard.

 

Did anyone else have this experience before?

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Dogs are extremely intuitive and aware of their environment. I wouldn't ignore this, but I wouldn't freak out about it either.

 

Does your dog have any health issues that may need immediate attention? I don't want to scare you, but that's what my dog does right before he has a seizure. He knows they're coming, and sticks to my side like glue so I can be right there when he's seizing.

 

Have you had any health issues? She might be trying to tell you something.

 

Is she usually sensitive to storms? You might want to check the weather and see if there is a change in the weather that might be scaring her.

 

Are you going through a life change right now? Dogs can become very nervous when they sense change. Are you moving, are there new people in your life, a change in routine that takes you away from home more often?

 

Please don't freak out over your dog's behavior! I'm not trying to scare you or make you more nervous. There are some days that my dogs just follow me around more because they're bored, or I haven't been home much lately. I'm just listing a few possibilities to consider.

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Thanks, girls!

 

As far as I know, she doesn't have any pressing health issues and she gets her shots and check-ups annually. Personally, I've felt fine, with just my allergies flaring up recently. Otherwise, I have no complaints.

 

Sunny, the first thing I thought about was that she may sense a change. I will be moving into a new complex mid-April, so I've been trying to get things condensed around my current place. Perhaps she knows that a shift is coming? I just worry about her because she's usually so laid back.

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I definitely think she is picking up on the fact that you are moving. If you have already started to go through your things, deciding what will stay and what will go, throwing things out, boxing up stuff, she has noticed. I'm sure she's also picked up on you vibe. Moving is scary, exciting, draining, frustrating, and time-consuming. Your vibe would make any dog nervous, and considering she's a rescue she might associate moving with the 'time to get rid of the dog' mindset that her previous families may have had.

 

Personally, I think this is the reason for her behavior. There's not much you can do to show her that moving is alright and that the change isn't anything bad. Dogs are amazingly resilient and she will adjust quickly to a new place. Just give her a little more extra affection in the meantime

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Oh yeah, she probably knows something is changing soon then. A friend of mine has to bring out suitcases to pack to go on a trip when their dog isn't around and if she sees them, she freaks out. Before tehy leave, they have to sneak them out. And if she sees me come over at any time (since I always stay with her when they leave), she gets upset for days until they leave.

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Yup! I had one client who came into the vet hospital because their dog was chewing out all of it's fur. It turns out that she & her husband were divorcing, and the poor dog was so stressed from both of them packing up their stuff and moving out that it was self-mutilating. The client had no idea that their dog was picking up on their divorce & separating into two households. An extreme example, but the point is still there.

 

I also petsit sometimes, and the dogs I watch usually skip a meal or two when their family leaves for vacation, but eventually they settle back into their routine. People are always amazed by how their dogs know that they're leaving!

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Yup! I had one client who came into the vet hospital because their dog was chewing out all of it's fur. It turns out that she & her husband were divorcing, and the poor dog was so stressed from both of them packing up their stuff and moving out that it was self-mutilating. The client had no idea that their dog was picking up on their divorce & separating into two households. An extreme example, but the point is still there.

 

I also petsit sometimes, and the dogs I watch usually skip a meal or two when their family leaves for vacation, but eventually they settle back into their routine. People are always amazed by how their dogs know that they're leaving!

 

Wowzers. How'd the vet come to the conclusion that the fur chewing was from emotional disturbances in the dog...because of the divorce?

 

Quite interesting.....

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