9 and a half year old Yellow Lab acting strange

jermil01 · 12-04-2006, 03:45 PM

First of all, I want to say I have been looking around, and this is a great site. So I'm hoping to tap into all the experience of other Lab owners here. I have had dogs pretty much my whole life, and brought Tuco, my 9 and a half year old yellow lab home when he was just 6 weeks old. He's been with me through everything, and has always been a little odd, my wife and I joke that he has OCD or that he's neurotic. Here's what's going on.

Lately, he has started to act funny around his food and water bowls. Let me provide some background, our home is primarily tiled, and we recently had a baby, our daughter is 4 months old now. He never has never any issues with her, loves to come up and sniff and lick her, lays next to her while she's on her play mat, and we make sure to give him as much attention as possible. Initially we thought the behavior might be him trying to get attention, but that doens't seem to be the case.

The area where his dishes are is over the tile, sitting on a small rug. He will walk up to the bowl and then start looking down at the tile like he is afraid of it. We've been in the house for over a year and he never had a problem. Our old house was tiled as well. The process starts when he begins to circle around on the carpet adjacent to where the bowls are. He'll walk up to the dish and then look down at the floor and back away. He eats a little bit, and has no trouble taking treats but you can almost tell he is spooked about something near the bowl. I've checked his pad and his nails are trimmed well. I had read something about a cognitive dysfunction syndrome, but he's not exhibiting any other unusual behavior, he sleeps the same, greets us at the door tail wagging, he just gets weird around his food dish. I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks.

tirluc · 12-04-2006, 04:26 PM

maybe he slipped once when he went to eat and is just a bit hesitant about it now......have you tried moving his dish to a different spot? even try another area on the tile and see if he does it there as well......at nine he might be getting a little "senile" (altho this is still "young" for a Lab, i've know many that have lived well into their teens) so maybe he "sees" things there that you don't......i know my 10 yr old BC will stare at spot on the carpet, for minutes at a time.....

Dogged · 12-04-2006, 05:49 PM

Two thoughts.

1. Any chance you have recently put tags on his collar that are hitting the food dishes when he goes to eat? I've seen dogs freak out about that before.

2. He is getting older, so he could have arthritis in his neck, and maybe it hurts to lean down to eat or drink. He doesn't know where the pain is coming from, just that it happens there, so he may think something is "getting" him around that area. You might consider getting one of those raised feeders that has the bowls up on a stand so he doesn't have to lean down to get to the food.

cshellenberger · 12-04-2006, 06:40 PM

The tile may be getting too slick for him and he may have arthritis that makes it harder to keep his footing when bending down to eat.

you could

1. get an elevated food bowl so he doesn't have to bend so far

2. put a larger throw rug under his feeding area to help his footing

Of course get him checked out for anything that could be causing him pain.

Madison · 12-05-2006, 12:42 AM

Have you had his eyes checked by a vet?? I had a german shepard that started that and it turned out that he was going blind and was seeing dark circles where there weren't any. Or maybe he is perceiving the rug as a hole in the floor, which is what gave us one clue that our dog was going blind, that and running into the fence!

jermil01 · 12-05-2006, 01:32 PM

Thanks all. These are great suggestions. He's slowly but surely started eating like his old self again, no explanation for it, so maybe he is getting a little "senile" in his old age..In response:

His food and water bowls are both raised so he really doesn't have to lean over much.

He does have tags on his collar, but he has had them forever, and they never seemed to bother him before. Although I hear them clink every now and then when he goes to eat.

I thought about him possibly having slipped on the tile, and I think that is probably the most likely scenario, he got spooked and was afraid to go near the dish since that's where it happened.

The suggestion that maybe he is seeing things is entirely probable too, hadn't thought about his eyesight since he can see squirrels through the back window of our house clear across the yard.

He was just to the vet a month ago and everything checked out good. Doesn't seem to have any pain that I can tell, just the usual old bones things when he goes to get up, he's not as quick as he used to be.

Whatever the case he seems to have cured himself, although I can still see he's kind of tentative when going up to the bowls. Guess I'll just keep an eye on him, and the suggestion about a bigger rug under the dish is a good one too. Thanks everyone.