Drool! AKA Why does he pant so much???

[Sweet72947]

Norris pants ALL the time. And drools. Not in long string or anything, but he drips. Everywhere. He drips on my bed, he drips on me, he drips on EVERYTHING! I HATE when he drips on my bare arms. Why does he pant so much? Is he really still this stressed after living with me for almost two months? How long should it take a shelter dog to get to the point where he will relax and lay down sometimes? I mean, Norris lays down, but he never stops panting unless he decides to sleep, which is usually only when he's in his crate. Norris is a very restless dog, and even at night he gets up and moves around all the time. I bought a Primo Pad for him and it has helped, now he has something comfortable to lay on instead of just a crate pan (he chews blankets).

The other explanation is that Norris could be hot all the time. My room is warm, I like it warm. I have the fan in my room running sometimes, but I'm not about to turn my air conditioning on and cool the house to freezing temperatures to see if the dog stops being hot. I've never had a dog that panted ALL.THE.TIME.

Ideas??

 

[StillandSilent]

Gambit stress panted for the first 6 months I had him, and did the drool drip for at least 3. Poor guy sounds stressed out.

I never figured out what to do about it, and eventually it stopped. Maybe someone else will have a better suggestion?

 

[Dagwall]

I agree it sounds stress related. As a nervous dog it's probably just going to take him a long time to fully relax and settle in. So pretty much just more time and fingers crossed. He's spent the majority of his life at the shelter at this point so it's a big change for him.

 

[AgilityPup]

Crash stress panted for a bit too when we first brought him home.

Try a thunder shirt, maybe? Might help. Just be patient, give him time.

 

[Grab]

How long was he at the shelter? If he's a nervous type dog and was there for an extended period, it can indeed take quite awhile.

 

[Dagwall]

How long was he at the shelter? If he's a nervous type dog and was there for an extended period, it can indeed take quite awhile.

I volunteer at the same shelter, don't remember exactly how long Norris was at the shelter but he was there when I adopted my boy Jubel almost 3.5 years ago. So more than three years, most of his life.

 

[Ratboy]

Some dogs are nervous their entire lives, they never really "calm down". Molly would pant and pant, about whatever, and at times, it drove me nuts. When I first brought King and her home, she was up all night, panting and looking at me. King would eventually get fed up with it, and lock eyes with her, and she would leave, but soon she would come back. If there was one thing King couldn't or wouldn't tolerate, it was being woken up for no good reason, and after the second or third time, he would finally actually get up and chase her out, and "explain" it to her. If she stayed out long enough, she would eventually fall asleep. This deal lasted for about a year, then she stopped it, and slept pretty well, but almost any noise would wake her up and she would check it out. When she was old, she started wandering the house late at night, panting. King at that point was deaf enough to just ignore it. I wish I could have. I found out night lights seemed to clam her down, somewhat.

I took both of them to work with me. King loved it, Molly panted and panted, she was stressed out totally by the people walking around, the doorbell and phones ringing, etc. I finally decided to just leave her home and not put her through it anymore. Same with day care, she never relaxed. I would watch on the webcams and she was a mess, and if King wandered off, she was panicky until she found him again.

 

[Sweet72947]

According to the paperwork I received, Norris was at the shelter for four years. Thanks for the replies, he is doing a little better each day. I just get frustrated with him sometimes, but I love him. Yesterday I took him to work (I work in a boarding kennel at a vet) and we currently have a little french bulldog puppy boarding there. We let the puppy out to meet Norris, and he was afraid of it at first. I had Norris' leash dragging and the puppy picked it up and started walking Norris around. Norris had this confused expression on his face. It was so cute.

 

[skittledoo]

(Hugs) it may just take him some more time. After 4 years or so in the shelter this is such a complete change and it's understandable for him to be a bit stressed out.

It was nice running into you and Norris the other day btw. We definitely have to hang out soon.