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Forums - General - Pets and their mental disabilities

I've had six dogs and can confidently say that, while I don't think you can directly diagnose dogs with human ailments, they certainly can have their own mental issues that are similar to some we experience.

One, which was a stray we took in and ended up keeping as the owner was some ~20 year old cokehead who didn't bother to feed it and her mother said she couldn't handle the responsibility, has clearly been shaped by the experience. While he's lived with us for 12 years he, to this day, is an aggressive scavenger, is extremely crafty and intelligent (makes my other dogs look like dunces), is always trying to sneak out of the house to wander the neighborhood for a while, and most of all has an extreme separation anxiety unlike anything I've seen.

He'll practically trip you up as you walk as he's trying to make sure to be close enough that you won't have time to close a door between yourself and him, and he'll start barking and scratching like mad if he finds himself alone. Basically, he becomes a dang lunatic when separated.

The other dog with issues has always, from the time he was a puppy, being very unusual in all things social... he would shake without cause, snap at you if you picked him up in a certain way (there was nothing the vets could find to suggest injury), would look for attention on occasion but you could only pet him in a very specific way or he'd freak out and run... My mother worked with special needs kids and said she'd observed many varieties of these behavior, so it seems to me that he probably has SOMETHING going on there.

So yeah, in 2/6 instances I've definitely seen clear signs that the dog is dealing with mental issues that would normally get diagnosed in humans.



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My dog can't stand fireworks so I am guessing it has memories from another spirit of the war.



Please excuse my (probally) poor grammar

Qwark said:
My dog can't stand fireworks so I am guessing it has memories from another spirit of the war.

You should take him to a Vietnam vet.

 

 

 

HA!



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

IkePoR said:
Aeolus451 said:
The one dog that fits this whole discussion perfectly had a severe case of OCD, alot of anxiety, scared of everything and had alot of quirks. She had these little rituals that she had to do or she wouldn't be comfortable. She had to be picked up a certain way and held facing to the left. If anything touched her while she was on a blanket (like a flea or mosquito), she wouldn't touch the blankets for awhile or until you washed them.

When I got her as a puppy, she didn't know how to bark or couldn't, so she would spend hours at the front door grunting/practicing til she finally pulled it off and she often jump at the sound she would make she finally did. Eventually, She got to where she just had to make this coughing/grunting noise for 5 to 10 mins before she could work out the sound right. Oddly, She was the most human acting dog I've ever seen.


Also, I've had two dogs who had astraphobia. If starts to storm, be prepared to pet or baby a shaky dog til it's over.... It can be cute or really annoying when that happens.

Really facinating.  Was she a rescue dog to your knowledge?  Or did you have her from birth?  She could have developed them from a prior owner.

On the astraphobia, lots of dogs either have it or it's a habit learned by house dogs.  A mate of mine has two dogs and they both need the cuddles when it's loud out - even fireworks sets them off.

She was like since I bought her and I got her when she was a young puppy. So I assume she was like that since birth. She was very intelligent, too.