Weird Behavior

[Fallout]

my dog has been acting weird this past week. He sits at the bottom of the stairs and whines. He's trying to climb them and he's done it thousands of times before, but for some reason he's not and he just sits there and whines. And its getting to be quite annoying. He's not injured to my knowledge. He's up there in age though (if that might have anything to do with it) anyone have an opinion or idea of what is going on here, i don't want my pup to be whining in the middle of the night, my parents are redoing their bedroom so they moved everything in their room downstairs and are currently sleeping down there so he will sometimes switch from upstairs to downstairs during the night. anyways if you could help that'd be super

 

[014509Bo]

Considering the dogs age, I would think the dog has arthritis.

 

[Fallout]

and its just popping up now? If this is correct, could there have been some early signs? If so could you give an example.

 

[Gallien Jacks]

How odl is he and what are his hips like?

 

[Gempress]

There may have been early signs, and you just didn't notice them. We didn't realize our golden retriever had arthritis until the day she refused to jump into the car. Try giving your dog a painkiller for one night. We gave our golden buffered asprin. There's a ton of info online on what to use and how much to give. If the whining stops, it's arthritis. Then take him to the vet to get some medicine for dogs.

 

[akemi_hikari]

You don't have any light earthquakes going on in your area do you? Dogs can sense stuff like that alot more than we can, and sometimes causes them to act weird. But I would go with yeah, the age thing, maybe he is feeling stiff and like its too much of a challenge now that he is old.

 

[Fallout]

I don't think its arhritis my mom brought up a good point its sad but true haha... I think he's just scared he's fallen down the stairs enough times that its scared him into not climbing them. I think she may be right about that one.

 

[Ash47]

I don't know. I would feel of his hips. Rotate them on your own and see if you hear any popping or feel any friction. That could be a sign of arthritis.

 

[Renee750il]

I'd strongly suggest you try giving him the buffered aspirin and see if anything changes. It's very common for older dogs to develop sore joints, especially if they've fallen down the stairs a few times! Actually, those falls could be indicative of some arthritic problems.

 

[Fallout]

he never used to fall down the stairs until we got laminent floors then i guess they began to get too slippery for them, and today he actually let out a little yelp while crawling up the stairs this is the first time. he just cries at the bottom of them not crying when he's climbing them so must be getting worse :S .

The yelp just happened a few minutes ago, and there is a landing seperating the stairs. and he's on the landing right now unable to come up the second set. awww. I don't want to carry him up because he will take advantage, if he knows hes going to get pampered for doing something he'll keep doing it lol. He's actually pulled off a fake limp once it was funny. cuz my mom thought she hurt him. he just wanted to be babied.

 

[Shadowkins]

Please bring your dog to a vet... it's amazing how much pain a dog will endure before it even whines. I know, my dog has had a painful back for many years now, but the first signs were his unwillingness to climb stairs or the occasional limp. At first , I didn't heed the warnings but by the time it got bad enough the vet found an advanced case of spondylitis ( infective arthritis of the spine). That did permanent damage.
I don't want to scare you but it really merits a check from your vet.

 

[abinas mom]

we had a doby/roty, when she was about 11 she started doing what your dog is doing. we also had put pergo flooring down on the stairs and she had no trouble running up and down those stairs until the weather changed. the cold and the rain really affected her to the extent where she couldn't come up the stairs. we would cover her with a warm blanket and give her an aspirin and she would come upstairs later in the evening. summer would come and she'd be okay and the same thing once the cold and rain started she couldn't get up the stairs. we stopped putting her out and kept her in during the cold months just out to pee and stuff. i would definetly get a vet check. as they get older they need to go in more often.