Changes in Behavior with Physical Causes

Your dog's behavior has changed--but why? Perhaps the new behavior is inconvenient or even dangerous. Could there be a physical reason? Much of the time, yes. Sweet Puppy Turns Wild Eight-week-old puppies are sweet, cuddly, and just active enough to do cute things like lick your face and tug your shoelaces. Two months later at 4 months of age they're nipping your fingers, toes, chin and nose. They're chewing holes in your clothes and hanging off your pant legs when you try to walk. The housetraining accidents stopped being cute long ago. What happened? Most puppies couldn't survive in the wild, but even the domesticated version of the dog comes with mental and physical potential to learn to hunt, fight, mate, and other survival functions. Humans have similar instincts, but dogs develop theirs much more rapidly. Our limited ability to communicate with dogs further reduces our understanding of their development. Raising a puppy can feel like fumbling around on the dark side of the moon. Puppies sleep a lot, and between naps they may seem jet-propelled. Likely their bodies require this alternating-sleep-with-heavy-muscular-activity pattern for optimum development. Puppies lack the physical control over bowels and bladder for full housetraining. Some have it by 4 months of age, but others take longer. Humans are appalled that a puppy would soil the house in this manner, and people take it personally! This human emotion becomes highly counterproductive to housetraining. Housetraining needs to be treated as a simple physical problem for dog and human to solve together. Puppies go through two teething stages. The first one is nothing compared to the chewing many large dogs do later on to set the permanent teeth in the jaw. Misunderstanding the physical change their dogs are enduring, people interpret the destructive chewing as willful and defiant. Since a dog can have no concept of money or the value of "things," your dog has no idea why you're angry. Chewing clearly comes from physical causes. The increased chewing that starts somewhere around 9 months of age is not a canine attack on human property! Pup Grows Up Life in the wild is hard, and a pup would have to be ready to help with the work of the pack by several months of age. As the permanent teeth are being set in the jaw, the now-adolescent dog's defense drives may be emerging. Development varies widely by breed and of course the extreme difference in dog sizes, something to keep in mind when evaluating your own dog's behavior. With the defense drives, you see the results of puppy experiences that created fears or suspicions. Now the dog begins to take responsibility for protection against things that have been threats in the past. A dog who was attacked as a puppy by other dogs in the park, another dog in the household, misbehaving children, or a thoughtless person over the backyard fence may now start reacting to those individuals as well as others like them. A dog who was overstimulated by unstructured rough-housing as a puppy is now likely to think people prefer this form of interaction. The dog's play-fighting behavior may be directed at children or men, if a child or man was the one who taught the behavior to the puppy. The result may be behavior that looks aggressive and is hard to distinguish from play. The dog may have trouble telling the difference, too. The dog starts to be more like other dogs of the breed, with traits breeders have selectively bred that breed to have. Retrievers show interest in retrieving and in birds, herding dogs in eying and chasing things that move quickly, terriers in scrapping and looking for critters, dogs with hard-guarding instincts in guarding places and people. Male dog behaviors begin to emerge in adolescence, although in some slow-maturing breeds you might be lulled into thinking it isn't going to happen until suddenly the dog is 3 years old and "all male." Behavior changes in males as they mature can include roaming (with or without escapes from a fenced yard), urine marking, fighting with other males, and stress when near a female dog in heat (such as in your household). Female dogs in adolescence have their first heat cycles, which can be accompanied by escapes, frequent urination, and fighting with other female dogs. If the female has a litter of puppies, her temperament can change either temporarily or permanently due to the hormone change she goes through to guard the puppies. Children in the family are sometimes bitten at this time. Male and female dogs both pose a statistically higher risk of biting children if not spayed or neutered. Both sexes are spared some medical problems as well as behavior issues by the surgery. Tiny male dogs may be impossible to housetrain if not neutered. Female dogs often die from having puppies. Breeding is no longer a natural process for dogs, because humans have interfered so much with their sexuality through selective breeding. That gives us the responsibility of making the right decision about spay and neuter for each individual dog in our care. Illnesses, Injuries, Genetic Abnormalities About the same time the dog is going through the rest of this maturing process, the bones are growing so fast that some dogs will develop a condition called panosteitis. It can be quite painful and can affect a dog's behavior toward people and other dogs and perception of the world in general. Your veterinarian can help make the dog more comfortable and in the process reduce negative behavior effects from the condition. The veterinarian can also check for other orthopedic issues accompanying growth that require different interventions. Dogs inherit many conditions that can cause pain, sickness and disability, and affect behavior. Occasionally a dog is almost too sweet, and you sadly learn it was because the poor dog never felt well enough to be active. Other times the dog is grouchy, reactive, or aggressive because of the problem. Be sure to have your dog screened and be vigilant in watching for any genetic problems prevalent in the breed. Mixed breeds are not exempt from genetic diseases. The mixed-breed dog can be susceptible to any of the genetic diseases in any of the breeds that contributed to that dog's genetic makeup. It often takes considerable detective work to find the physical cause for a change in your dog's behavior because the dog cannot describe symptoms. This detection starts with always suspecting a physical cause at the root of any behavior in your dog that you don't understand, particularly if it's a change from previous behavior. We tend to say a problem is either "physical" or "a behavior issue." Too often if we can't find a physical cause, the behavior label turns into a blame game against the dog. The physical cause might remain hidden, and when it does show, we may fail to see the connection. This is a missed opportunity to improve your communication with your dog, as well as to avoid having a temporary problem turn into a permanent one. When a change in behavior is diagnosed and treated before it becomes a habit, chances of success are usually excellent. Let's say your dog has an ear infection and your child hurts the ear by petting it. The dog reacts and the child backs off. The next time--or the 10th time--the child approaches to pet that dog on the head, the dog may act before the child touches the head, and this could be the time you witness. To your eye, there was no cause for the aggression. But in actuality, there was. Treating the ear infection quickly could have prevented the aggression or interrupted it before it became a habit. Sometimes along with treating the physical problem you need the right behavior modification exercises. The longer the behavior problem continued before diagnosis and treatment, the more time it will likely take to modify. Dogs may react aggressively to protect injured knee ligaments, shoulders, luxating patellas (slipping kneecaps), hip dysplasia (one or both hips not seated properly in hip sockets) and a host of other problems you may not know the dog has. Like other animals, dogs have a survival instinct to hide their pain. Showing weakness in the wild could get them killed. We make a big mistake when we think a dog is not in pain because the dog doesn't cry out. A lot of dogs have to be in agony before they will release a cry of pain, and some never will. A change in behavior--such as self-protective aggression--may be your only clue of a dog who is injured or ill. If you know your dog has a physical problem such as hip dysplasia, protect the dog from pain so the dog doesn't have to become aggressive in self-protection. Old age is not a disease, but geriatric dogs do become more prone to conditions that can affect behavior. These problems often can either be cured or made more comfortable for the dog with your veterinarian's help. Don't be afraid of a diagnosis. Knowledge gives you the power to make good decisions for your dog. Housetraining changes get people's attention quickly, and can be affected by many physical causes. Urinary tract infections are common in dogs. Prostate problems are common in intact male dogs. Intestinal parasites are also common, and many other things can upset the dog's intestinal tract. Orthopedic problems can cause dogs to postpone relieving themselves because it hurts too much to get into position. Later the dog has an accident indoors. You wouldn't expect that a medication to relieve the dog's pain would correct the housetraining problem, but exactly that can often happen. And you've helped your dog's pain as well as your own cleaning inconvenience. Changes in eyesight and hearing can happen at any age, and are common in old age. A dog startled by a touch the dog didn't know was coming may react protectively or fearfully. Once you know the cause, you can help the dog use other senses. You can verbally greet the blind dog before making physical contact, and make sure the deaf dog sees you before you touch. You can also play gentle, happy games with the dog to create the expectation that a surprising touch will bring a treat or something else the dog likes. You will, of course, know to protect this dog from people who would approach thoughtlessly. Start with Your Veterinarian Write down any symptoms you want to bring to your veterinarian's attention so you won't forget to mention them. Be a detective when your dog shows a concerning change in behavior. Take the clues to your veterinarian and work together to try to figure out what's happening. Many dogs will try to help you understand the problem. This experience between you and your dog opens the way for a new, deeper level of communication. The above is general veterinary information. Do not begin any course of treatment without consulting your regular veterinarian. All animals should be examined at least once every 12 months.