Hi All,

I am just wondering if anyone has had any experience of a funny behaviour that Molly has started to exhibit over the last week or so?

On Saturday night, Molly and I were sat on the sofa while my wife was upstairs running a bath. I was gving Molly her usual evening/sleepy attention, scratching behind her ears. As a 'treat' I decided to take her collar off to give her a really good scratch!! However, as soon as I took it off she became really startled. She quickly got up and hid behind the sofa and when I went over to see her she ran off upstairs and did a pee on the landing (she is now house-trained). She look terrified and so I let her out into the back garden to finish her pee but she ran to the back of the garden and hid under a bush. I left her there for 20 mins to see if she would come in on her own but eventually had to coax her in with some treats. She just went straight off to her crate and wouldn't come out. So, as it was late, I left her in there with her blanket to go to sleep and I went off to bed.

We thought that this was just a one-off and may have been caused by a combination of my wife running a bath and taking Molly's collar off so she thought she was going for a bath.

However, last night, Molly was laid asleep on my lap again in front of the TV. My wife reached over to pass me something and Molly became startled. She leapt off the sofa and went and hid in the corner of the room again. We tried to coax her out with her ball and with some treats but not much luck. I eventually got her to come out and she went for her evening pee and then off to bed without much problem but she was shaking the whole time. This morning she still seemed a little off and spent most of the morning in her crate where she would usually be with us getting ready for work, trying to attack my socks!

This is completely out of the ordinary for her. She has just turned 1 year old and we have never seen her look this scared. We never mistreat her and do not use any form of physical discipline. I doubt that this is any form of separation anxiety as she's very rarely been troubled by this in the past and we have not changed her normal routine in any way.

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts, or if you think we're just over-reacting a little here?

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Molly - 10 month old beagle

Victims to date - garden trowel, Sky+ remote control, 2 cardigans, 1 pair of trousers, skirting board, telephone cable, laptop cable, camera....and counting!

Hiya,

Was there any pattern to her reaction? Ie a noise outside / happened at the same time / touched her in a particular area ie neck etc?

So difficult to know what can cause reactions, particularly over the internet, but it might be useful to keep a little diary when moments like this occur to see if there are any patterns which you can then work with - ie desensitization to a noise etc (although it may well be a one off thing anyway).

Hope your girlie is ok though, keep us updated.

Thanks Pawsitive. The only common factor has been that Molly was, or had been recently, dozing on our laps, so maybe she woke up with a fright. It doesn't usually bother her though.

I'll do as you say and keep an eye on her over the next week or two and see if there is a common factor to this behavious if she continues.

Dene

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Molly - 10 month old beagle

Victims to date - garden trowel, Sky+ remote control, 2 cardigans, 1 pair of trousers, skirting board, telephone cable, laptop cable, camera....and counting!

Just a wee update.

I was discussing Molly's behaviour with our dog-walker today and we decided to try and take her collar off again.

As soon as we did this, Molly ran and hid under our dining table and while shaking had a pee on the floor. she then ran on to the stairs and did a pee there, all while shaking. However, as soon as we put it back on and put on her lead ready to go for a walk, she returned to normal and was pulling to go on her walk.

So, it looks like Molly doesn't like to be naked!!! Next step is for me to try and get her habituated to being without her collar, for when we bathe her or if she has to go into the vets. So, I'm going to get her some really nice treats and offer her some as I take her collar off for a couple of minutes at a time. Hopefully, this should sort her out.

No idea why she fears being without her collar. She very rarely is without it, but I wonder if it reminds her off when she was in the vets last time to get her dressed. However, we fairly regular bathe her without her collar and she's usually absolutely fine.

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Molly - 10 month old beagle

Victims to date - garden trowel, Sky+ remote control, 2 cardigans, 1 pair of trousers, skirting board, telephone cable, laptop cable, camera....and counting!

Aaw bless her!

Can imagine how strange it must be, and worrying, when your pet starts to exhibit odd behaviours; we get so used to their little nuances that stuff like this really freaks us out, I know it would to me and I've only had Jenson a month now.

I would say, purely from looking at what you've said so far, that perhaps she is associating her collar coming off as a trigger for something she remembers that wasn't the nicest of situations, such as the vets. If she's waking up from a nice lap snooze to suddenly realising her collar is off, it could be just that she's a bit groggy from sleep and she's just purely reacting to a past experience.
She falls asleep on your lap in what she knows is a nice safe snuggly place, then she's suddenly awake again and collarless, maybe her first thought is "EEeekk how am I suddenly at the vets?! I wasn't here when I decided to have a nap!?" Who knows, this is just my silly thought

I hope she's feeling ok, let us know how it progresses. x