Strange Behavior

Question

Our three yr old, neutered male shih tzu has developed some strange behavior. He has always been around people and often takes the bus with my daughter when she goes to work. He is a lovable and sociable dog who has always been around other people and pets. Now when my daughter takes him on the bus he begins barking, squirming around and acting like a real pain in the bu**. Before he used to love it when strangers petted him or told him how cute he is but now he doesn't seem to care. His behavior at home is still the same. What could be causing his change in behavior and how can we correct it?

dominosarah · Answer

Is there a different bus driver maybe??  He is sensing something different on that bus.

lonewolf07 · Answer

Red - I have found that dogs just know when their people aren't feeling too well.  Nothing like a shih tzu sitting on me to help the healing process.  Our Akita is like that too but she doesn't sit on me - she weighs about 80 lbs  lol

ginger - I'll suggest your idea to my daughter.  I'm sure "The King", our shih tzu, would love to be driven to work  = )

ginger899 · Answer

I don't know if this is possible to do, but you could test whether there is something about that bus which upsets your dog. One morning maybe your daughter could go to work perhaps in a friend's car? So then you could tell if it is just being away from you which is causing the problem, or whether it's something about the bus, in itself?

Red931 · Answer

No that doesn't sound arrogant at all. My bulldog stciks to me like glue when I'm sick or hurt. These days she is at my side 27/7. lol  She actually sniffs the part of my body that is in pain or injured. 

Even if I have a headache she will sniff the top of my head and then start licking the exact spot where the pain is.

lonewolf07 · Answer

Those are really interesting responses.  There are different people on the bus every time my daughter takes him to work with her.  I wonder what he is trying to tell her?  I've even "talked" to him.  I agree with you that dogs sense things we don't.  Recently, I was quite ill and I wonder if he feels he is abandoning me or doesn't want to leave me alone.  Does that sound arrogant?

ginger899 - That was an incredible story  = )  I can relate to your story about your JR.  My Siberian husky, who has passed on, was friends with everybody.  Only twice in the 14 yrs he was alive did he ever growl or show his teeth.  I didn't notice anything in particular about the people he didn't like but since the dog didn't like them, I stayed away from them.  Like JRs, huskies aren't known as "guard dogs" but they still sense things we don't.

ginger899 · Answer

I was just going to say something kind of similar, but Red beat me to it!

It could be someone who has just started getting on that bus, who smells a certain way, or has a certain vibe. A human wouldn't notice.

I'll tell you a strange survival tale....
Once I had a Jack Russell called Toby. Once he was trained he was pretty well behaved as JR's go. He always walked well with me on the lead, and didn't pull us all over the place. One day we were walking along a street in town, and he suddenly -whooosh!-pulled me right out into the road. There wasn't heavy traffic but we got hooted at anyway by drivers! 
Next second timber came falling down from scaffolding on a building right where we would have walked, if he hadn't done that! As it crashed on the street, I knew his bad behavior had saved our lives! I have good hearing but had no clue that was going to happen.

Red931 · Answer

Dogs have an amazing way of sensing things that we don't. There is something on that bus that is getting him aggitated. It may not be something that you want to correct. Your dog may be trying to tell your daughter something.