Kia has been acting weird ~ HELP!

[Dixieland Dancer]

Kimmy, I know it's hard to comprehend because we tend to put human emotions on our dogs, but they are not capable of feeling guilt. Dogs actually have very bad short term memory and if they are not punished or rewarded within 3 seconds after a behavior, it's a wasted effort on the humans part.

Instead of guilt, you are actually witnessing submission. It could be caused by some reaction that you are making unconscienously when you come home. Perhaps you are apprehensive as to how you will find things when you come home? Kia is also experiencing a new freedom that she never had before and is probably not 100% comfortable with it yet. Remember, something she knew as routine for years has now changed dramatically for her.

I would suggest you try mixing things up a bit when you come home. Instead of walking into the house, you could try staying at the door and calling Kia to come outside. Entice her with something she really loves. With Dusty his favorite thing is either "Let's go OUT!" or "FRISBEE!" but with Dixie it is "COOKIE!". These are happy words they LOVE! Make your greetings upbeat and positive! You need to take the anxiety out of yourself about "how did things go today" and focus on the positive. If something did happen during the day in a negative way, your 3 seconds to reinforce the correction are long gone anyway.

Mix up your coming home greetings. Be creative. Some people actually come home and ignore the dog for awhile and then do their greetings. Personally, I'm not capable of that because I miss them when I'm away from them. This is actually a better remedy when you are dealing with seperation anxiety.

One last thought....instead of putting Kia in the crate, perhaps you could section her off in just one part of the house. It might not be so overwhelming to her if she is given smaller pieces of freedom at a time, instead of it all at once.

Hope this helps!

[ramanth]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I don't conciously worry about whether or not she's going to destroy something while I'm gone. I'm so tired when I get home from work that I'm usually thinking.. "I'm so sleepy. I'm so glad to be home. I can't wait to see Kia and the kitties."

So if she's picking up any apprehension it must be unconciously.

Besides, since my brain has gone into shut down mode as I'm unlocking the door , I don't get upset unless I actually SEE something wrong, so for her to be acting like that is why it's so wierd.

I just walk in, drop my stuff on the table and say, "Hi baby!" the second I see her.

I'm usually quiet as I'm coming in, so yesterday I made a big fuss as I came in the door.

She was in the bedroom, and so I called out, "Kia! Where are you!? Where's my baby?" in a very chipper voice and she came bounding into the room doing her happy spins and wagging her tail.

That's how she USED to greet me before doing this guilt/submissive act.

I petted her and told her she was a good girl over and over and she just wiggled happily.

I never had to call her to me before... she would just come running at the sound of the key in the door.... so now I'm going to call her and keep praising her.

Perhaps she was sleeping in and I caught her off guard so she felt bad for not greeting me.