Very weird dog behavior...?

[paintedfish]

Now that I'm back home, I see how incredibly weird one of my dogs is. He's part greyhound, and maybe german shepard I think (the dog in my avatar)... so he's fairly high strung genetically... but he's terrified of lightning, outside noises, my parrot whistling, etc.

 

 

But the weirdest thing I've ever seen is he will stand with his nose almost touching a wall or corner, and start growling and barking at the wall, and his hair will raise on end. This goes on for around 30 seconds-1 minute, and then he's wagging his tail and then just runs off.

 

Another thing he does is he repeatedly slams his head into a wall. He just jumps at it over and over again, hitting his head fairly hard until someone stops him.

 

 

I don't know what we can do to help him. My dad's more or less fixed his extreme separation anxiety, and he's a lot more comfortable in his own skin, but he does the weirdest things still.

[LemonCheesecak]

The fear of noises sounds fairly common, my dog goes crazy any time there's fireworks of lightning. He once tried to gnaw his way out of the room till his gums bled because of fireworks!

 

But that is strange, my first though was that there was the scent of something on the walls that he's defending himself from, is it any wall or just a specific one?

 

The other thing is even weirder, poor dog. I can't think of any logical reason why he'd be doing that at all.

[paintedfish]

It's really any wall. He does it over his food dish a lot, every corner in the house, and random walls.

 

It breaks my heart. He's a super nice dog. I know he's strange because he was basically raised and lived in a crate at my cousin's house. He has a lot of nervous energy. He gets a lot of exercise, we have 5 acres and my dad takes them out and lets them run around the neighborhood while he rides along in the golf cart next to them. But he paces constantly. He always looks nervous, rarely sleeps. He usually seems happy, I just don't know why a dog would slam its head into a wall.

[amipushy]

It sounds like he's neurotic/ OCD. I think you should him to see a vet before things get worse.

 

You could try clapping your hands/blowing a whistle the very second you see him going into that 'zone' out to try to snap him before it happens. While its happening I don't think theres much point. Its the before/at the very second that counts like any form of anxiety based illness. Look up classical conditioning/ pavlovs dogs for the principle- it might help.

 

Good luck he's a fab looking dog.

[Crazyaboutdogs]

But the weirdest thing I've ever seen is he will stand with his nose almost touching a wall or corner, and start growling and barking at the wall, and his hair will raise on end. This goes on for around 30 seconds-1 minute, and then he's wagging his tail and then just runs off.

 

Ghosts in the wall?? LOL

 

Another thing he does is he repeatedly slams his head into a wall. He just jumps at it over and over again, hitting his head fairly hard until someone stops him.

That's very sad. Clearly there is some negative association with walls. Was this dog abused by a previous owner?

[TechResQ]

Do you think there are mice in the wall? Dogs have such a keen sense of hearing and smell...just a thought.

[TechResQ]

To further expand on the "mice theory"...greyhounds are "sighthounds" and will want to chase and catch rodents and other small creatures...again...just a thought.

[EQD]

this happened i think once and when they finally investigated the part of the wall the dog was alarmed about they noticed the electrical wiring was shorting out. it would have eventually caused a fire and burned the whole house down.

this is a true story.

it sounds like this dog has hypersensitive hearing. that would explain why loud and shrill noises bother him so much. it probably sounds like someone blasting an airhorn at him.

 

I'd have that wall looked at pronto.

[omfgzwhat]

Your dog might not be seeing very good. You might want to get his sight checked. For a greyhound, that would be sad.

 

My cat used to repeatedly walk into walls or jump at things that weren't there, or press his head into things or pretty much headbutt them. We took him to the vet and he had a brain tumor which was causing him to go blind and put pressure in his head which was causing him to press up to things, and we had to put him down.

 

It sounds like to me there might be a tumor, because he could be in more pain than you think and by slamming into walls he thinks he's helping it.

[paintedfish]

D: That's a horrible thought. I know my dad won't take him to the vet... I'll suggest it though, maybe I can try to get him to go. Thank you! That is certainly a way to explain it...