Why is my dog acting scared and panting

Anyone who has owned a dog knows that sometimes your pup will suddenly and inexplicably start acting scared. If you didn’t see or hear anything yourself, you might be left wondering what’s wrong. Maybe some sound startled them that you happened to miss? Or possibly your suspicions that your house is haunted might be true after all.

In this article, we’re going to run down possible causes of mysterious fear in your dog. There are some simple reasons your dog might be acting frightened, none of which require supernatural explanations. There are some more serious possibilities as well, and we’ll address those at the end.

Interpreting Your Dog’s Fear

Figuring out what your dog is afraid of is often a simple process. Dogs are usually not subtle creatures and will bark, stare at, and obviously avoid something that frightens them. If you’ve ever owned a dog that’s scared of the vacuum cleaner, you know what the signs of this kind of direct fear are.

Watch your dog carefully when they start acting scared and try to detect patterns. Does it always happen in the same room? Maybe it happens at a similar time each day. Collecting clues like this can help you narrow down the possible causes.

Loud Noises

Some sources of fear have less obvious signs and can cause concern for you despite being innocuous. Your dog’s hearing is far superior to your own, and a distant loud noise or sound in a frequency hard for humans to hear could have spooked your pup. If your dog is moving from one hiding spot to another, it could be because they feel the threat is coming from everywhere, a sure sign that a loud sound spooked them.

Pacing or walking in circles nervously could also indicate a sound is bothering them. One way to rule this out is by taking them for a car ride to see if the behavior stops when they’re somewhere else.

Unwanted House Guests

Another difficult source of fear to detect is an infestation. Your four-legged friend might become aware of the problem before you do. Some insects have painful bites that can startle your dog and cause them to associate where in the house they got bit with pain. Even creepy crawlies that don’t bite, like cockroaches, can startle your dog since they’re relatively big, move quickly, and are new stimuli.

Rodents like mice and rats can also cause your dog to act strangely. Even if they aren’t afraid, pacing behavior when searching for a pesky mouse could easily be confused for fear.

Negative Experiences Tied to a Room

Rooms like the bathroom and laundry room can be unpleasant for your dog, and they might avoid those rooms or be wary of going in or near them. They might be reminded of bath time when they’re in the bathroom, an experience most dogs do not enjoy.

Similarly, the laundry room is full of loud noises and mysterious machines, so most dogs won’t relax and let their guard down there.

Another possibility is a one-off experience you may not even be aware of. We had a dog get frightened by a coat falling off the rack in the hallway, and it took us weeks to realize the source of his newfound fear when it happened again.

Sometimes you might never figure out what spooked your buddy. As long as the fear subsides with time, there probably isn’t anything to worry about.

Aging

Older dogs are more prone to age-related maladies, and sometimes unexplained fear can be a sign of cognitive decline. Unfortunately, our canine companions are not immune to brain diseases like dementia. Some dogs experience confusion or auditory and visual hallucinations that can be intense, frightening experiences for them.

If you suspect your older dog is experiencing age-related cognitive disorders, contact your vet. They will conduct a thorough examination and help devise a plan to help you make your older dog’s latter years comfortable and happy.

Illness

Without any apparent outward stimuli causing your dog’s strange, scared behavior, it could be a symptom of underlying illness. Many possible conditions could present as fear.

Aging dogs are more susceptible to vestibular disease, but all dogs can develop it regardless of age. Vestibular disease is a catch-all term for ailments affecting the body’s vestibular system. There are many facets to vestibular disease, but one rare symptom involves auditory hallucinations, which can be extremely frightening experiences.

The bottom line is any unexplained fear that doesn’t seem to have any cause needs to be taken seriously. If you think there is a chance your dog’s scared behavior could be due to illness, contact your vet immediately and schedule an appointment.

Conclusion: Dog Suddenly Scared

Unexplained behavior from your dog is always troubling, but most of the time, new skittish and scared behaviors have innocuous causes. Careful observation can help find the cause and set you on the path to helping your pooch overcome their fear.

In the rare cases that there is a more serious underlying cause, it is a good idea to schedule a trip to the vet. Old age and disease can cause your dog to act scared in unusual circumstances, and it’s important to get professional help so you can give your dog the best life possible.

Featured Image: evgengerasimovich, Shutterstock

Dogs act paranoid all of a sudden due to underlying fear, phobia, separation anxiety, or physical health issues.

Although the complexity of a paranoid dog hasn’t been thoroughly analyzed, it’s a fact that some canines suffer from this.

Fear as a defense mechanism is widely spread among dogs and it’s not that easy to eliminate.

Most aggression cases are fear-based and it’s a real issue.

Continuous exposure to fear produces phobia and/or paranoia.

What can make a dog act paranoid?

Dogs with phobia experienced persistent fear and now they constantly anticipate it even when the trigger isn’t apparent.

Persistency isn’t a hard and fast rule.

Even a single fearful experience can turn into a phobia that surpasses rational responses.

Both fear and phobia can make a dog paranoid, though with phobia the symptoms are much more expressed.

So many triggers can be responsible for the condition but I’ll try to guide you through them all.

Symptoms of a paranoid dog are:

• Pacing
• Drooling
• Panting
• Loss of bladder control
• Lip licking
• Yawning
• Flattened ears
• Tucked tail
• Avoiding eye contact

No dog should be blamed for developing fear, anxiety, or phobia.

They understand the world much differently than we do so we need to learn how to help them cope with whatever intimidates them.

Why is My Dog Anxious All of a Sudden?

Many medical and non-medical reasons cause sudden anxiety in dogs.

Dogs can get unsettled due to stuff that seems mundane to us. No age, gender, or breed is excluded from this.

Let’s look at the most common reasons for a dog’s mental distress with paranoid behavior as a resulting outcome.

Fear

A dog that is afraid is a dog that often starts acting paranoid.

Most commonly dogs fear sudden loud noises, objects/people that look suspicious, unpleasant smells, etc.

Fear appears when the trigger is in the dog’s proximity.

Different dogs show different symptoms of fear.

Some hide in dark and isolated places while others become alert and aggressive.

If you know your pet well enough you might have an idea of what produces the sudden onset of fear.

When you can’t find the exact cause right away, don’t blame yourself.

It’s advisable to talk to a veterinarian and even take your pup for an exam.

A vet along with a canine trainer can guide you in relieving the level of fear and stress in your beloved furry friend.

Trauma and Phobia

Although age isn’t the key factor, most dogs develop phobia as a result of a traumatic experience when they’re puppies or between 1 and 3 years of age.

Anxiety crosses the line and turns to phobia due to incidents like mistreatment, abandonment, abuse, etc.

Phobic dogs make it hard for themselves even when the trigger for the phobia is nowhere to be seen or heard.

Whatever the cause is, this type of anxiety takes a great toll on your dog’s physical and mental health.

We mostly see chronic phobia due to past trauma in rescue dogs.

Many of them had abusive owners and now anything that might remind them of the past experiences produces paranoid episodes.

Never try to medicate your phobic dog on your own.

Once professional trainers and veterinarians discover why and when anxiety occurs, they should give you instructions on how to desensitize the pet first.

Mild cases of anxiety may be bettered by using a dog thundershirt.

Separation Anxiety

Separation anxiety is pretty common in dogs and it’s easy to diagnose.

Whenever dogs with this condition are left alone they can start acting paranoid and turn to destructive or clingy behavior.

For some, it takes just a few minutes for the symptoms to kick in, while for others it takes a few hours.

The outcome is the same either way.

If the problem is not promptly addressed to it can take a serious toll on your dog’s mental health (as well as on your furniture and relationship with your neighbors).

The dog simply thinks that the owner won’t ever come back for him.

Either a rescue already had separation anxiety or the owner didn’t train the pup to stay alone.

Breed Predisposition

Some dog breeds are naturally more anxious compared to others.

Behavior that can be observed as acting paranoid all of a sudden in new environments is more common among Cocker Spaniels, Pekingese, German Shepherds, Basset Hounds, Dalmatians, Poodles, and Siberian Huskies.

Highly intelligent and energetic dogs are prone to anxiety if underexercised and not mentally stimulated.

However, every individual’s temperament is different, no matter the breed.

Lack of Socialization

The first few months of a puppy’s life are very important for proper social and environmental experiences.

Letting this key segment slip can make a puppy habitually fearful as he grows up.

One of the most common culprits of an anxious dog is poor socialization.

Various stimuli during young age give a dog the general idea that the world is filled with surprises that can be loud, sudden, and weird looking but cannot hurt him.

Puppy classes and walks in parks or around the city are a great way to avoid these problems.

Social paranoia in dogs can also be caused by early separating a puppy from the mother and other littermates.

This happens when you take the dog away before he reaches 8 weeks of age.

Bad Course of Training

Luckily, more and more people rely mainly on positive reinforcement as means to train their dogs unlike the old methods of using physical punishment and violence for bad doggy behavior.

Punishing the dog’s normal puppy behavior like accidents inside the house can produce all sorts of phobias in the long run and the only product of the process is a paranoid dog.

Moreover, this may also result in a general distrust towards the owner and a lack of bonding.

Health Problems

Quite a few health conditions can make your dog turn paranoid all of a sudden including encephalitis, hypothyroidism, diabetes, and thyrotoxicosis as the most frequent behavior modifiers in dogs.

The most important thing worth remembering is that dogs can suddenly become jumpy, alert, and paranoid when they suffer medical issues.

Both discomfort and pain are things that can turn an otherwise relaxed dog into a paranoid one.

Every disease is a potent stressor that can easily alter the canine’s behavior.

We humans also experience psychological problems when we are physically sick.

If it’s a health condition causing your dog to be anxious and paranoid you can expect some symptoms that will tell you something isn’t right.

Why is my dog not acting like himself? Has he been eating properly for the last few days?

How long since the last vet check-up?

Answer these questions and if there is the slightest possibility for a health concern don’t wait to make an appointment at the vet office.

Especially when your dog is older and has never before had behavioral issues you must have him thoroughly checked.

Senior dogs with nervous system disease can experience anxiety.

Toxic substances leading to acute poisoning may alter the dog’s behavior in minutes.

My Dog is Acting Like He is Seeing Things

If your dog is acting like he is seeing things, he may actually hear them before actually seeing them.

However, dogs who persistently act like they see things might suffer from fly-snapping syndrome, eye issues (i.e. floaters), or neurological problems, perhaps even causing hallucinations.

A dog’s hearing capabilities are four times stronger than humans’.

They can hear something distant and try to focus on it by looking in that direction.

The frequencies your dog is picking up cannot be heard by people so he might look strange as if he sees things.

A syndrome called Fly-Snapping can be the reason why your dog seems like seeing things as well.

The FS Syndrome is caused by epilepsy and seizure.

There is a possibility that the syndrome is hereditary.

Eye problems like vitreous floaters are conditions when collagen fibers clump within the vitreous and cast shadows on the retina.

In this case, your dog does see these clumps that appear as flies in front of his eyes which makes him fix his gaze strangely.

Dogs that have a history of abuse or ones that lack socialization can also suffer from Fly-Snapping Syndrome.

Hallucinations can appear because of neurologic disorders or certain medications and make a dog keep looking up and around.

What to Do If Your Dog is Acting Weird and Restless?

If your dog starts acting weird and restless you first need to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself on sharp objects, the stairs, etc.

In the meantime, do a little brainstorming to try and figure out the potential cause and any coincidences.

If you are still not able to find what the cause is, take your dog to the vet asap.

You can sometimes spot a dog acting like something is crawling on him as a response to boredom, so not all weird behaviors are as serious as one might think.

Dog Suddenly Scared of Something in the House

Dogs can be suddenly scared of recently added objects inside the house such as a new sofa, rug, plants, or even just moving something in the house, especially if’s something that provided comfort to your canine like the dog bed or crate.

Another cause of this onset of fear can be unfamiliar noises, often causing a dog to hide or bark compulsively if not socialized well enough.

However, anything that’s causing uncertainty in your dog can make him suddenly scared.

If your dog is acting paranoid for a prolonged time, make sure to take your dog to the vet for a check-up and evaluate whether or not external factors contribute to this (new objects inside the house, stress, boredom, etc.).