My boyfriend (Alan)'s mums dog is always really excited to see me, sometimes more than it is to see those 2! When I stay over at the house though, sometimes on odd occasion, for example if there are fireworks, she goes all funny, starts shaking and panting really heavily and wont stop for hours even after they have stopped. We assumed she was just nervous of the loud bangs, which is fair enough, however recently, she has started doing it for no known reason to us...

She will push to get onto the sofa even when there is no room, she will force herself to hide away to tuck her head behind you, or under you, anything and will sometimes clamber on the back of the couch to push you off to get behind you. She will shake, and pant and go really quiet and just stare at the wall. We can not figure out why she does this, there are no bangs of which are heard by us anyway that we could associate with this...

She does calm down eventually, but this can take hours sometimes and even cuddling her and giving her loads of attention does not make any difference.

What could this be? Is it some sort of fit?

I would take her to the vets for a check up, it doesn't sound like your average type of fitting which generally only lasts a few mins.

Maybe there's something happening nearby that she can hear and that you can't.  Does it happen at around the same time?  How abuot a DAP diffuser or the like?

It happened last saturday and then the saturday after, but doesnt happen every saturday. There is not really any kind of pattern to it just random and she has this weird do like something has spooked her, but not quite sure what... I know dogs get spooked, but doesnt usually last that long surely does it?

Whats a DAP diffuser? Air freshener? If so, they do not have one of those or anything similar...

My Norfolk hates bangs like fireworks/thunder and does the same thing.  She shakes like a leaf and hides in the smallest of places.  Around bonfire night I try to walk her legs off so she is tired and when they start, I turn the tele up loud.  When it thunders, I just try to pacify her as best I can. :(

Why she is like this I dont know cos we've got 3 parrots and they make loads of loud/high pitched noises and she doesn't bother with them!

Just another thought, has she been spayed?  Just thinking phantom pregnancy can have similar symptoms.

I likened my Meg to Mr Jelly (Mr Men books) - every little thing starts her off - last night I switched on the bathroom mirror lights and the thing shorted sending us into darkness because it tripped the box.  My husband shouted to me and Meg became a whole bundle of nerves.  Shaking and panting running around to find what the danger was.  Your dog could have been frightened by something simple that didn't even register with you - now perhaps just the fear of it happening again may be triggered off by similiar circumstances.  I have seen fits in both of my previous dogs and what you describe isn't like that.  But I agree get the vet to check things out.

thanks everyone, i think its possibly due to something frightening her which we maybe cannot hear... i will tell alan and go from there :-)

Hi this was what my boy was doing - possibly for the past couple of months.  Because I knew he has previously been sound phobic I put it down to fear/anxiety - one time - about 10 days ago he was shaking in absolute terror after hearing quite a small sound. Last week though he suddenly had a cluster of major 5 min fits, was hospitalised and is now on medicatiion.

My advice to you would be that something is wrong and most likely it is anxiety related. To help you/he work out what it is keep a record. Also if it urns out that these are some firm of mild fits you will find the record useful to help work out what is going on.

I would go to the vet and disguss the best way to help her.

Don't want to frighten you but I am reaching the conculsion that dogs with inbuilt extreeme anxiety/phobias may need more then the average dog in helping them cope.

Here is a website that looks very helpful.

http://fearfuldogs.com/index.html