New Behaviour - Cringing

[Wobbly]

Well heya Dolers.

Been a long time since I visited this corner of the interwebs, I have been very busy! Hope everyone and their canine friends are well.

I just wanted to share my perplexity, and outrage with people who understand and will sympathise.

So the backstory is we have just travelled around Australia for 7 months in a Land Cruiser camper. It was amazing, and Jarrah and ourselves had an absiolute blast. I would highly recommend it as a holiday option you can share with your pet, there's a wealth of campsites that allow dogs in the majority of the most beautiful spots in this country.

Which brings me to the point of this epistle, which is unfortunately of a grim nature. Because we wanted to visit some areas that don't permit dogs though, we inevitably had to kennel her here and there. Most of the kennels were fantastic, but evidently there's been a rogue operator in there too.

So yesterday, I was in the pet shop buying Jarrah a marrow bone with Jarrah herself standing by my side. As i pulled the bone out of their freezer it swung maybe 15 cms from Jarrah's head and she cringed, I mean seriusly cringed. Down on the ground, tail between her legs, terrified Exactly like a dog who's been beaten round the head with an implement.

Well I've certainly never hit her with an implement, neither would my husband, he's a very gentle soul. Since Ive never seen her cringe like that before I'm concluding its from a new experience. There's a chance it's from her old days before I got her from the pound, but that was 4 years ago now, and the only issue she ever had from that was with brooms leaning against walls and she's entirely over that now - doesn't give brooms a second glance anymore. I really don't think this cringe is a hold over from her life before us. I have never seen her do it before, not in the entire 4 years Ive owned her, and I'm sure I must have done a lot of swinging implements like bones around her head in that time.

So I think this behaviour came from one of the kennels she was in. I'm trying to work back in my mind to see if i remember any funny bahaviour from her immediately following a kennelling to see which one it might have been.

Im just outraged. To hit a dog over the head with some kind of implement is bad enough in itself, but especially worse when it's not your dog and you are being paid to keep it safe!

I wanted to share my distress at this, and also sort of hoping some DOLers with more knowledge of dog behaviour might chime in. Can I fix this? I don't want my dog to cringe like that when I wave marrow bones (of all her favourite things in the world) or any other object near her head.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Wobbly

[Salukifan]

I think you are jumping to conclusions and probably wrong ones. You frightened your dog. She cringed. If she's not generally headshy, I'd go no further than that.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Haredown Whippets

[Dame Aussie]

I wouldn't freak out too much either, I know my dogs will sometimes cringe at things or act frightened of things, and they've never been hurt/hit with anything in their life.

If it gets worse maybe look into it, but I wouldn't think her doing that once means there is necessarily a problem.

[Wobbly]

O thats so good to hear!

She's never been headshy before, and she's incredibly robust and healthy. It's only happened the once - yesterday - and it just really freaked me out, because Ive never seen it before and because she has been in a few kennels over the past few months. If it doesn't happen again I won't worry about it. Thankyou!!

I guess I just worried because she really is generally the most confident happy go lucky dog you could ever meet in your life, so it was quite out of character behaviour.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Wobbly

[persephone]

Down on the ground, tail between her legs, terrified Exactly like a dog who's been beaten round the head with an implement.

or has caught a shadowy glimpse of something scary ..there are other reasons... and yes, she may have been frightened by a broom or something ..one may have fallen .. or there may have been a loud noise or something as an object was above her ..just suggesting that your thinking may be correct, or there may well be other reasons.

Don't dwell on it, or tread carefully around her - that will maybe increase any concerns she has - just go on as normal ...and if there is an increase in the behaviour ..then get her checked out . :)

Edited June 25, 2012 by persephone

[Salukifan]

If she isn't a young dog, the other thing I'd suggest is that she may have some vision loss. That can up the "scare factor" for a dog.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Haredown Whippets

[Wobbly]

O wow, I am glad I posted this. Coz I didn't think of these things, I just immediately assumed that cringing occurs due to abuse, and I was so upset. Good have my peace of mind back. Thanks guys.

Yes her eyesight is really not great. I have always had to make sure her fetch toys are bright colours so she can see them.

[Wobbly]

Anyway, in retrospect my response was good, I just held the bone down for her to sniff so she knew it was a good thing not a bad thing, and in my mind i was thinking "WTF you silly dog, as if cringe from a marrowbone". She reads my mind through my body language, so she'd have got the right message there.

Wasn't till after we left the petshop I started to wonder where she learnt to cringe & got disturbed about it.

[ellz]

I wouldn't worry about it unless it becomes a regular thing. If you're really concerned about it though, maybe an eye check could be in order? Sometimes dogs with failing vision act differently in some circumstances. It really could be anything though, she might have just caught the bone coming at her out of the corner of her eye, her attention may have been elsewhere or any other reasonable explanation.

[megan_]

Glad your mind is at ease. If I saw a large heavy object being swooped by my head I might duck too!

[Clyde]

My SBT cringes at sudden things. She behaves like a beaten dog in certain circumstances but has never had a hand raised to her. Granted, she has always been like this so sudden behavior does sound odd. I wouldn't jump to conclusions though, some things are just scary.