Drastic change in behavior/temperament
 

So Franklin recently turned two years old (on Oct. 2) and in the past week or so has had a HUGE change in behavior. Up until recently he was a well behaved dog who never chewed on anything and spent most of the day lounging with me on the couch. He gets plenty of exercise, a walk at least every other day and playtime in the backyard everyday. They also get to go to the dog park a couple of days every week.

For the past couple of days both before and after our weekend trip out of town, he has been an absolute nightmare. He has been chewing on wires and just walking aimlessly around our house being mischievous in general. Last night he started some obsession with the wall right outside our door in our backyard. Every time we let him out there he sniffs and paws at it almost obsessive-compulsively. Today I thought if I let him explore it for a little bit maybe he'd stop. Well 20 minutes later I look out there and he has been chewing, tearing and biting at the wood. The whole bottom part of the wall has been chewed up. I thought maybe he was bored so I offered him a bone to chew on. No luck. So we went on a walk. No luck. I've even offered some of his favorite toys. No luck. Currently he's walking in circles, whining and crying.

The only relief I've had from this in days is yesterday when we sent him to day care. I don't like to send him to daycare because he seems so stressed out when we pick him up. BUT he slept all evening afterwords..

He hasn't behaved like this since he was a puppy, over a year ago. I was so glad to know the destructive puppy stages were over but it looks like they're back! I don't know what could have caused such a horrible regression! I am at my wit's end with him. The only thing I can think of that has changed in the past couple of weeks is diet. We switched to raw at the beginning of the month. I know there is supposed to be an increase in energy but I can't imagine it would cause an increase in rambunctiousness?! Plus the other two dogs are behaving normally.

Somebody help me before I go crazy! I have 4 exams in the coming weeks and if I don't get some peace and quiet I might lose it. :eek::confused:

Wow, sorry that is happening to you. All I can is offer prayer's to
you in hopes it ends as fast as it started. Could there be small
rodents in that wall? Maybe that's why he so obsessed with digging
at it. Hope you find answeres and peace soon.

I agree...I have a crawl space that in the cold weather cats and raccoons (not together) will crawl in there..(this house sat empty for over a year) and my crew goes insane running around the house or once outside digging on the deck to get to the crawl space...

We had a freak storm (4 in of snow yesterday) and sure enough you could see the paw prints to the crawl area (the dogs can't get to it) and when I let them out they were crazy.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll check to see if there is anything under there and try to block it off or something.

Aside from that though he is still acting horribly! HELP! :(

My first thought was rodents in the wall. My second thought is maybe he's hungry. How much raw are you feeding him?

If he's whining and crying walking in circles maybe he's in pain or something? Maybe a checkup with the vet could give you some answers.:confused:

According to PMR guidelines, you are to feed 2-3% of the dog's ideal body weight. For Franklin, that's about 4 oz. per day. We feed a little over that, with about 2 oz. for breakfast and 2.5-3 oz for dinner. I never thought about him being hungry. Lately the dogs have been on the skinny side so we have been feeding them more. When we fed kibble they only eating 1/4 c. of kibble per meal. I feel like volume-wise the raw is the same amount if not more, PLUS it takes them longer to eat raw. BUT it's an interesting thought. Could being hungry really cause him to act mischievously?

I don't think he's in pain -- I mean I'm not for sure but I feel instinctively that the whining is out of boredom/frustration. It's not constant and he doesn't whine when we go on walks or he's sleeping by me.

I really don't know. Mine have done some pretty bizarre things on the rare occasions they let me forget to feed them. I feed a combination of pre-made raw & kibble, so I don't know much about the PMR guidelines. You certainly sounds like you do, though. I wonder if you could feed him a little extra, just for a meal or two, and see if that helps any?

I just gave them each a couple spoonfuls (probably about 1 oz) of raw ground chicken and how he's whining even more. I will try to feed them an extra meal to see if that helps. They need to put on a little bit of weight anyway.

I must admit, all of this is making me question the change to raw feeding. I'm a rational person and not normally silly enough to think that a diet could cause such drastic behavioral problems but since that is the only change I can think of, I'm left feeling a little irrational. I would absolutely HATE to go back to kibble because I fully believe in the benefits and importance of feeding a biologically appropriate diet.

My boyfriend and I have also speculated that maybe the physical stimulation of eating raw meaty bones has spurred an interest in exercising his jaw muscles (hence the reappearance of destructive chewing)? Haha we are just full of crazy ideas because we are running out of options! :rolleyes:

I understand!! I just don't know if the diet change would make this kind of difference. Especially since your others aren't behaving differently. And he's whining more after giving him a little extra? Well, I will be so curious to see what happens after you feed him again. I sure hope something helps him soon!

Roxie just turned 2 and she has her moments where I can just see her getting bored. SHe starts looking for trouble. My other 2 are older and not as playful. The other day she was sitting in back of Pixie, who was sleeping and I watched her keep lightly tapping Pixie on the back with her paw, just like a little kid trying to bug a sibling. Hopefully Franklin will settle back down.

Thank you, Patti. I was so hopeful that he had finally settled down for good but maybe this is his last round of maturing?

I am leaning toward the mouse in the house theory. Pebbles was obsessed last winter and I am positive we had a mouse. She would pace around and stand in the corner of our laundry room and I just could not get her to stop. It is that time of year.:eek:

Thanks! We will check for rodents and put out some dog-safe traps but it unfortunately still does not address the issue of restlessness and chewing.

I'm sorry you're going thru this. Before reading your whole post, I was going to suggest exercise but it seems they get quite a bit of that. Besides everything else already posted, the only thing I can suggest is MORE exercise? Maybe since, like you said, eating raw causes an increase in energy so maybe he's just itching to burn off that extra energy. I would suggest a long walk every single day, rather than every other day if possible. Maybe an hour walk per day. I know Jackson is one year old and has a ton of energy, and when he doesn't get at least 1 hours worth of exercise a day, he begins to chew things he shouldn't, etc. I can tell it's purely out of boredom.

I wonder if this particular dog might be allergic to the raw food that you are feeding. Why not go back to what you were feeding him before for several days to see if he calms down. One dog can be allergic where another one is not.

Have you tried bully sticks or peanut butter in a kong? Both of these will keep Bonnie busy for a long time.
Also, how about puzzle toys or a treat ball?

How's he doing? Any improvement?

Well I've gotten some really great suggestions both here and on other forums (although you guys were SO much nicer ;)) so we've been working on that.. he has been better! We are making a conscious effort to walk every day (if we can) and/or have some really stimulating playtime. We also have been feeding more. I've seen some slight improvements so we're taking it one day at a time! I haven't been nearly as frustrated as I was when I posted that. I'm thinking it was a phase that's slowly going away.

Also we did find a ton of flea poop/fleas on him that I think he got from daycare (ick I know!). And while the behavior started before he went to daycare I think maybe some of the drastic parts of his behavior can be attributed to that. We have since bathed in Dawn and used Frontline Spray.. hopefully we got all of them.

Thanks for all of your help and I will keep you updated!

behavior change
 

I hired a trainer to help me train my dog and she explained that small dogs are more fearful than you may even recognize and some of this behavior sounds like the dog is very fearful. Some dogs will chew and urinate when they are stressed or fearful. Also she says if a dog regresses to behavior that you do not like you just start over and retrain. they are mousers so that is a very good theory.:eek:

is he doing anything else? Does he go to the bathroom more than usual? The going round is circles is what is concerning. is he eating ok?

Just a thought but could a neigbour maybe have a bitch who's recently come into season? Males can pick the scent up from some distance and even neutured dogs can react. Rosie has been in season recently and it drove Alfie mad.

i was thinking perhaps lime disease it can cause this type of behavior change!!!

Really?!?!? Well, we definitely have ticks & lyme disease in Oklahoma. :eek:

Did you switch to the raw diet "cold turkey" or did you introduce the raw meat gradually, feeding a little at first along with the kibble and then gradually increasing the raw and decreasing the kibble? It could be a tummy ache from the diet change. Or possibly an internal parasite from the raw meat?

Ack! :eek: I'll have to look into that. We did find a tick on him about 1-2 months ago..