My dog keeps crying?

[scootaru]

Hi I wonder if anyone could shed some light.

I have an 8 year old Neapolitan Mastiff. He has always been a happy dog and he is very active for his age. He goes for walks once a day and cant wait to get out - He wakes me up every morning for his morning walk.

I have had him since he was a puppy and nothing new has changed in his lifestyle.

Over the last year though he has started to cry all day long for no apparent reason. He is not sick (as far as I can tell) he is not in pain anywhere, he wants to play all the time, nothing has changed from his daily routine and nothing new has been added to our home (kids, animals or anything else)

He just spends the day crying while laying in the hall way. He will come in from his walk, sleep for a couple of hours and then when he wakes up he will just cry all day long until he eventually goes to sleep in the evening. He then starts the process all over the next day.

When one of us gets up to rub him, he will stop and wag his tail and be all happy again but then when we leave him to carry on with our stuff he starts to cry again.

I really don't know whats up with him - Is he depressed? Should I start taking him out more then once? He does have a bit of a wobbly leg which is why he only gets one long walk a day but ever since he was a puppy he has got one walk a day. Someone is ALWAYS home with him, he is never alone.

Is he to dependent on us? What should I do?

Thanks for reading and hopefully I can get some kind of help - Do they do doggy shrinks? :)

[tonyb286]

Hi. The diffuser is available from most good pet stores. I note its also available at PetCo: http://www.petco.com/product/10534/Comfort-Zone-Diffuser-with-DAP-for-Dogs.aspx

It's interesting she moves around the house during the night and sleeps in different places. This kind of suggests she isn't happy with where she is sleeping and is probably getting concerned about it. I'm also wondering just how much her diabetes is under control. Nocturnal hypos are very common in diabetics (I know, because I am one). Is she receiving tablets or insulin? How do you test her blood-sugar levels?

Is there a place she sleeps more often than others? Maybe try moving her bed there and see what happens. Smell is going to be very important to her, as she is blind. So, is there a place outside your bedroom - maybe a hallway - where she can sleep? Here Lucy will be reassured by scent from your bedroom, whereas in the kitchen she may waken up thinking you have left the house.

Tony

[fcurr81563]

Hi Tony,  

Thank you for responding so quickly. Lucy sleeps in the kitchen in her bed  but usually wanders throughout the night and sleeps in different places in the house. She will come into our bedrooms in the middle of the night and lay there and whine. I have started to turn on the television on low volume, during the night so she hears sounds and it not so quiet.

I tend to agree with the anxiety. A lot of the times, as soon as we call her name, she wags her tail and stops whining. But then it doesn't take long for it to start again.

Where can you get the DAP plug in? We can try that. We will also try the t-shirt thing. Otherwise nothing has changed within the house. We do not allow her on the furniture anymore as we don't want her to hurt herself especially while she is still healing.

Thanks,
Faith

[tonyb286]

Hi. To be honest, if this major surgery was only two months ago, I think your dog is on the borderline of post-op recovery. There could certainly still be some discomfort, though there should not be any actual pain anymore. The whining is therefore more likely to be psychological - an anxiety or fear reaction.

Where does she sleep? Is her sleeping location away from where you sleep? Has this always been the same - or has there been any change to her sleeping location over the last year or two? If nothing has really changed to cause her to be anxious, then she may benefit from a couple of things ...

Have you tried DAP plug-in calming pheromones? Try getting one and plug it in somewhere within the room she sleeps. This doesn';t work for all dogs - but there are good reports of it working for about 75% of anxiety cases.

Second, put something in her bed that smells of you and the rest of the family. An old T-shirt, for example, unwashed ... which other members of the household should also pass their body-scent onto. I know this sounds crazy, but it can work, because most dogs feel more comfortable with the scent of the pack close to them.

Blind dogs are extraordinarily resilient, but they can tend to be more fearful about certain things - particularly changes in the home. Have you recently obtained new furnishings or changed furniture around? This could also be a root of the problem.

Let me know how you get on.

Good luck.

Tony

[fcurr81563]

Hi Tony,
I hope you can help us. We have a 4 year old terrier mix. At the age of 2 she lost both eyes to glaucoma (which we found out, she was born with). After that we found out she had diabetes. Which is under control. 2 months ago she jumped off the couch and dislocated her hip. She had to have a femoral head ostectomy. Since her surgery, she whines ALOT. It doesnt matter if we are home or not. We always go to her and comfort her. She cant walk long distances yet but of course walking her is not easy with her blindness. She wakes everyone in the house every night with whinig. We go to her comfort her to calm her but do you know of something that we could do to help her? We have taken her to the vet. The vet said she is not in any pain.. Not sure what to do.

Thanks , Faith

[tonyb286]

Hi. No, it is not a result of loss - sometimes dogs do become anxious and sad and indeed fearful after immediately losing a companion/pack member, but that does not usually last more than a few days or a week or two, and is far more to do with human alpha pack leaders and their emotional state.

This could be so many things it's almost impossible to say what it might be. Dogs whine and howl due to pain, a change in the home situation, loss of sight or hearing, or due to anxiety or fear. You really need to eliminate the most important first ... so a full physical examination by a vet is the first priority, as this should reduce the likelihood of physical symptoms, such as pain.

Next, make sure you look closely at her eyes. Is there any cloudiness in them that might suggest a gradual loss of sight? Check her hearing by standing behind her and clapping your hands, gently first to see if there is a reaction, and getting louder until you get a reaction.

Next, has the home situation changed at all over the last few weeks, are their new people in it, has there been a change in your or others work shifts (meaning you are out of the house more often and she is left alone for longer periods), food being fed, etc. Does she whine whether you are in the house or not? When she whines at night, where is she? Has her sleeping pattern, behaviour or place changed at all?

Tony

[Deano094]

Hi, I have a 10 year old mongrel dog. She has recently started howling through the night and crying/whining through the day. We had to have her mum put to sleep last year (March), could this be the cause? If so why has it only started in the last month or so?