Out of character anxiety

[jessieboo]

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Hi I am new to the site & hope someone will respond. My 4year old spayed Westie x poodle is very bright happy friendly sociable and is a brilliant all round biddable dog, she loves all dogs and whilst always keen and ready for a game she is polite and respectful to those who are not interested. She loves children too and is very used to all my dog friendly grandchildren ranging from 2 to 14 who she sees almost daily. She comes almost everywhere with me, friends houses, shopping, pub, car trips and is comfortable & relaxed in even the most busy situations but is equally happy to be left home alone. My problem is for some unknown reason she is a nervous wreck when we visit one of my sons & his family in his first floor flat & it is being in the flat itself & definitely not the people inside that worries her. She adores my son and his partner & she cant get enough of my two year old grandson & nine year old granddaughter who live there but she flatly refuses to voluntarily get out of the car & go indoors whereas everywhere else we go she needs no encouragement to join me wherever we are & never needs a lead. Once inside the flat she sits close to me sometimes trembling otherwise just pressed tight against me & follows my every move. Occasionally she will relax and play with the children but she is on edge because something about the flat unsettles her. Nothing unpleasant has happened to her there but we are at a loss as to what it may be...maybe the doors close louder than other places, is it because we are all 'upstairs', do the appliances in kitchen sound louder to her. Whatever it is I wonder if there are any tips I can use to give her confidence & help her relax while we are visiting. She loves our family walks with my son and his family but returning to the flat she wants to jump in the car & would sit in the car alone than come indoors. PS she is a good eater but unfortunately she is not much of a foodie so hard to reward her with titbits. Sorry if I have rambled :0)

 

[eingana]

Hi jessiboo, welcome to DogForum

Your little one's problem sounds very much like there's a sound or a vibration that is freaking her out. It could be anything from different floor construction (concrete floors transmit sound along them in a different way to timber floors) or the presence of a lift (the workings can make uncomfortable vibrations) and another thing that I've known dogs be freaked out by is an underground garage, presumably because the cars underneath the floor structure make noises and vibrations.

Personally I'd consider a combination approach with this situation. Since she's so normal and happy most of the time I'd get something like Serene-Um tablets, which are a herbal sedative which is good for anxiety and give her some of those for a couple of days in the lead up to a visit and see if she has a less anxious response to arriving. If she does then you can start work on rewarding her for good behaviour with whatever she finds utterly irresistible to eat in really small bits. I know you say that she's not really one for treats, but for this instance I think it's worth investigating all of the really high value treats, from chopped up hot dogs to tiny bits of cheese and pate smeared on a plate, to find something that she really likes in normal circumstances.

Once you've found something that hits her spot (doesn't matter what it is- one of my adopters has a GSD who will do ANYTHING for a Chantenay carrot, none of your bog standard carrots here thank you) then you've got something which will hopefully meet the sedatives in the middle and start to get her less anxious about the place. I don't think that treats by themselves will do anything at all positive if you don't also address the anxiety, but because dogs' smell and taste centres take up so much of their brain processing power, a wonderful treat when she's not feeling quite so anxious may work wonders.

If you can find something that she's really interested in taking then for the first few visits she can have lots of them, but only when visiting your son and family. If she will get engaged with a smear of something lovely on a plate or something that is chewy then even better, because licking and chewing produce seratonin in dogs and therefore are good for calming in themselves (and you can make a small dog spend a very long time getting a very thin film of pate off a large plate!).

I'd love to suggest that there was a way of getting around this with just treating her well, but if you've been doing this for some time then you could spend years gradually desensitising her by pulling up, giving her a treat or some fuss and then leaving without entering the building.

Of course, the other way around it is to leave her at home when you visit your son.

Crossed fingers for you

 

[jessieboo]

Hi eingana, thank you for your very informative response. There is no lift in the building or car park underneath it is just a two story block of two flats with two separate front doors next door to each other so my son has his own stairs & the older chap underneath is a quiet widower. Its very interesting what you say about the floors are they ARE all concrete with no timber at all although it is carpeted throughout but I had naively not considered the implications of concrete floors. The doors are internal fire doors so do swing shut firmly when not propped open & although they are not loud to us & she has never been in vicinity of any closing door I wondered if she might be anticipating the noise they may make to a dogs sensitive ears when they are allowed to close. Also at times she seems to get agitated when people go into the kitchen so maybe inaudible to us she feels the vibration of the kettle, microwave & other everyday appliance vibes & noises through the concrete floor. Our own 3 bedroom house is timber flooring upstairs & concrete downstairs but this would be deep solid foundations so I presume less vibration as she has no issues at home or indeed in other houses. I would really like to get her over this because as a family we do all regularly get together for the day at my sons due to his location with parks & walks etc. on his doorstep & our dog is very much part of our whole family. This particular son & his partner are the best placed to ever look after her too should we ever need someone to care for her overnight or in an emergency but it would be unfair if she would be traumatised. I feel sure now it could be vibrations upsetting her as she was fine in their other flat, they have been here a year & the problem started soon after they moved here. We as a family will try your suggestions & all do our best to desensatise her now we have some idea what it could be.

 

[chelynnah]

Hi - the answer above is probably very similar to what I would have said (though also probably a lot more thorough). There is obviously something about the building that bothers her, and if she's been in other flats with no issues, it may be something as simple as an electrical hum that we can't hear but she can.

Here's a thought that just occurred to me as I was writing this. If it's electricity it also may be having a kind of static effect on her as well. I know it might sound stupid, but stranger things.... Maybe rub her down with an antistatic dryer sheet before you get her out of the car,and a couple of times while you are there. We do this to reduce static buildup when our girls wear their fleece coats, but I've also heard of people using these during electrical storms as the air gets charged, and the dogs are uncomfortable - not about the noise, but about the electricity.

Of course I would do the other desensitisation as well, but this might be worth a try.