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Is It a Behavior Problem or a Medical Issue?
Sometimes it can be hard to know if a dog is in pain or if she is feeling ill. ???? Dogs can be so stoic, but if we observe carefully we may be able to gather important clues which will help us decide whether we have a training/behavior issue on our hands or if a vet visit is warranted. One of the first tip-offs is if there’s a sudden and unusual change in behavior. For example, if a normally house-trained dog suddenly begins to have pee accidents inside, there could be a urinary tract infection lurking behind the scenes. Imagine if we tried to tackle this from just the training side of things – we sure wouldn’t get very far.
Last year, a young pup was staying with me for training. The first day of his stay we had some wet weather, so I was wiping his paws. He snapped at me when I was toweling one of his front paws. His pet parent hadn’t mentioned that he had any handling issues, so I got in touch with her and found out he’d been recently stung by a bee on that leg. So his snapping was the result of pain, poor little muppet. ????
Undiagnosed, chronic pain can sometimes be harder to identify, and we can wrongly assume it’s just a behavioral or temperament issue. My dental hygienist told me about her cattle dog, who was surly with people and other dogs for a long stretch of time. She assumed it was just ‘the way she was.’ But, it turned out she had an undiagnosed dental issue that caused her a lot of pain. Poor dog! Once that issue was resolved, her demeanor around strangers and other dogs softened.
Have you experienced something like this with your own dog, where an underlying medical issue was ‘causing’ what appeared to be a training or behavior issue? Please share your experience!
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3 Replies
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Great topic, @virginiad !
My old guy, Samson, the last couple years of his life could hop into my Jeep Wrangler, but not come out willingly. He air snapped a few attempts by myself, a vet tech and my teenage daughter. I figured, upon review of symptoms and follow up with vet that it might be something medical. (Wound up: vet said it was a disc in his lower back). He simply wouldn’t get out of the Jeep! A few times I had to give him a pain reliever, drive around to my other appointments with windows open and water bowl in the back. Instead of coercing him, we let him come out when he decided.
After my daughter’s report to her dad, he emailed me that I should get back in touch with the trainer, since Sam’s behavior was like this and dangerous. I was just getting into my trainer studies with CATCH, so I knew he was wrong.
Eventually once pain meds kicked in, Samson willingly came out of the Jeep. A couple of times when I had another car available, I would leave my boy in the Jeep with my 17-year old son sitting in the open garage with him and instructions NOT to attempt to get him out, but pup-sit him until he came out. He always did.
Looking back, I am so upset that we did not take the advice of our trainer and follow through with training him to walk up a ramp as a puppy! When we did get the ramp, he was already older, and he was fearful of it. So, this got out of hand and ended up causing a medical problem!
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Such a great example, @bernerlabreclectus — thank you for sharing!
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@virginiad This is a great topic and I never thought of it until I went to school with CATCH. A couple weeks ago a puppy I was working with started peeing more often during a training session- I thought it was odd had client have her checked and it was a UTI. So I always keep this in the back of my head along with when I work with my own dogs- did something change abruptly??
@bernerlabreclectus Samson is adorable! Of course I have a soft spot for these Berns! Your story is so good. I love the part where you still let the dog choose to come out too! On top of Berners sensitive personalities as they are:)
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