Why Did He Do This?
 

I'm hoping someone can offer some advice or perhaps have had this happen to them.

Last evening, my 4 year old male yorkie went to bed with me as usual - along with my 6 year old female biewer (she's been with us for 2 months now). All was well, then I was awakened by a scratching sound on my pillow, I thought at first it was my female, but no, it was my male - then he starts a reversed sneezing attack. I finally get him settled from that and then he lays next to me and he is trembling/shaking for what seems like 1/2 an hour - we both went to sleep but I don't know if he was frightened or what. A little while later, he wanted off the bed, so I put him off the bed, when I woke up, he was sitting in the bathroom, next to the toilet, just sitting there, like scared.

I will also say, he's done this before, but not during the evening or night but sometimes during the day (BEFORE I even got my female), he will follow me in to the bathroom and just sit by the toilet as if he's scared. And even when I leave the bathroom - he will stay there just sitting by the toilet.

I might add, though my female has been with us 2 months - he's never seemed to really care for her. I've had my male since he was 13 weeks so he was resident dog for a long long time. She is pretty bossy with him and she does demand a lot of attention. She will bark at him if he walks in front of her, or if he's barking at another dog, she barks at him, or if I'm playing with him, she will jump right in the middle as she wants all the attention - when this happens, my male just walks away as if he's sad.

What could have caused the trembling in the middle of the night? Why does he go sit by a toilet as if he's hiding?

I dont know what could have caused it maybe a bad dream or something. My Jewels has some odd moments that have no explanation for it also

I really don't have any advice because not knowing your baby, I'm not really sure what may have caused this behavior. He could be experiencing some kind of pain and maybe a visit to the vet is best. Once we go to bed at night, my dogs are not allowed off the bed. If they get up, I get up with them and stay with them because it's out of the ordinary for them to be up at night unless something is wrong and at that point I am worried about them and wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. I hope your vet can tell you what's going on with your baby. Poor fella.

This is definitely an odd behavior. My two are also not allowed off the bed at night... They only leave it when they ask to be let out to go potty. I wonder if he had a bad dream or if he is in pain?

He is due for his annual booster and I will be certain to mention this to the vet. Thanks everyone!

Sounds like panic or pain. Tibbe has the occas. pain attack which can last up to 2 hours if I can't get him outside for vigorous exercise or some other distraction so I usually use boiled chicken or some other high value treat and get him to doing tricks or chasing his treats to distract him. But I've seen dogs in pain or ill shaking badly and isolating, too. I'd have him checked over by a vet to be sure it's not pain/illness but otherwise, it sounds like he hears some odd sound such as an electronic car opener or something like that that takes place to trigger his panic. Whatever causes panic, distraction to another activity is the best way to treat it since we can't talk over the fear causes with them and soothing can just exacerbate it.

Try not to empathize or pitty him during these times if it turns out to be panic & not pain or illness as this can reinforce the fear-based behavior and make him worse. It could be he's developed a tendency to panic and your new dog is somehow triggering his tendency to have some of the panic attacks but sometimes more than one thing can trigger them. Some people and dogs just tend to flood with adrenaline when scared/worried by something and it can trigger panic attacks & the shaking, won't subside until the adrenaline and the fear-cause is abated or distracted by something very exciting or intensely interesting or something really fun starts happening. Hope you can get to the bottom of it - I know it is worrisome to see them so uncomfortable!

Thank you!! Yes, it's very worrisome, I've thought about it all day. He doesn't seem to be in pain, but he also doesn't seem to be "himself" lately. I was thinking it was the new baby we added but now, not so sure. It's been 2 months, like I said, since she joined us. Thanks again to all for the wonderful advice.

It could be he's more unsure with the new dog around and if he's had some fear episodes before, this new unsettled attitude has left him a bit vulnerable to a fear reaction. Just be prepared for his next episode and toss his some lovely boiled chicken about, get him distracted doing some tricks, take him out for a fast walk/run or play his favorite games (even if it's the middle of the night - maybe the walk/run not at practical!) while the adrenaline abates in his system. It could take an hour or so sometimes so be persistent and keep him distracted until he's his extra adrenaline abates. In time, as he fully adjusts to the dog, so should his tendency to have this reaction this way. You could start treatdropping every time he's around the new dog as it comes near him or barks or things like that that tend to cause him to notice what the new dog is doing. Just give him a treat for no reason other than the new dog being near him or asserting itself when he's around. It could help him associate the new dog with good things happening. Occasionally slip in a small piece of boiled chicken or something like a turkey hot dog bit to make the treating extra special, otherwise you can just use kibble.) Read up on canine panic attacks on the internet by some of the more noted dog behaviorists to better understand ways to help him through these times once you are sure he's not ill or hurting.

Fantastic Advice - thank you! I will try all you mentioned. I think this evening, some extra love too :2hearts2:

P. S. I missed it before, but the reverse sneezing sometimes can trigger a panic attack in some dogs - and it accompanies the attack with others. The second time Tibbe ever reverse sneezed, he had a panic attack - white gums, shaking, trying to isolate. I gave him some honey, dotted a very tiny spot of it around the den floor in a little path of it & he was soon very interested in finding all the honey spots and was fine in just a bit. The white gums turned pink and he was happy again. He's not diabetic so all was fine but later found that tossing kibble treats and getting him barking and running helped distract him and helped his get his mind off what worried him, helped him work out the adrenaline and worked just as well as a path of honey and I didn't have to mop the den floor afterward!!!

I didn't even associate the reversed sneezing attack with a possible panic attack. Now that I think of it, when he started having the reversed sneezing event and I quieted him down he was standing right next to me when he was doing it. It woke my boyfriend up and he took Canyon over to his side of the bed and that's when my boyfriend said, he's shaking, I said is he cold (feel his ears) he said no, so he held him for a bit, then Canyon came back over to me and wanted off the bed. That's when he went in the bathroom and sat by the toilet in the dark. I will definitely discuss with his vet and will remember the distraction with chicken or even honey. So glad to hear you didn't have to mop the floor after and the honey - they are such little helpers - lol.

Oh my gosh - I just found this on the internet - I think that's what happened. He had a panic attack, i remember now my boyfriend saying he was shaking AND he was panting. I had forgotten the panting part. So maybe he heard a noise that none of us heard and my other dog heard and wasn't even affected by?

Panic attack in dogs comes on suddenly and can be triggered by loud noises such as thunder, fireworks or gun shots. The fight or flight instinct kicks in big-time, but since they can't fight something they can't see, some dogs will usually try to run away from the noise. For dogs who are fenced in or contained within a house, there is nowhere for them to go. So they turn all of that "flight" energy into outward destructive behavior or they internalize it, causing severe shaking, whining, panting, and raised heart rate.

It is not really understood why some dogs suffer from these panic attacks and others don't. One dog in a household may sleep through a violent thunderstorm, while another dog goes absolutely berserk and seems to be totally inconsolable.

Is it possible it wasn't reversed sneezing but maybe collapsing trachea and that scared him? I thought Callie was having occasional reverse sneezing but turns out she has CT and that its not what she was doing. Another member thought the same thing too with her dog.

well, I'm pretty sure it's reversed sneezing - he seems to do it more when he's nervous or stressed than any other time and he doesn't do it that often. When he's making the sound, he's kind of posturing and stiff all over and doesn't move and he's standing and it sounds like the sound is coming from his nose, like a snorting thru his nose.

I agree, I too think it was a Panic Attack, and...
it won't be the last one he has.