Wondering if anyone can give me any advice. 

I have two 4 1/2 year old SBT castrated males who have been separated now for approx. 18 months firstly due to the fact they began fighting at approx. 3 years old and secondly because one is epileptic so I cannot risk a seizure occurring while I am out of the room in case the other attacks him.  I am not sure if the above is anything to do with the current problem but thought it might be useful to give a bit of background. 

Both are crate trained and crated when we go out, they were in crates from day 1 when we brought them home, so do not know any different.

Fairly recently Rocky the "normal" more laid back of the two (Jack is very highly strung and anxious & epileptic), has been acting very strangely with my husband.  When my husband comes home at lunchtime to let them out Rocky has been refusing to come out of his crate (he won't even be tempted by food, which again is not him at all).  Yesterday my husband had to go back to work in the afternoon and Rocky still refused to come out of his crate when he got home.  He left it open so he could come out in his own time, but chose not to. He did exactly the same tonight also.  The thing is as soon as I get home, he dashes down stairs like there is a fire to greet me!  I cannot understand what is wrong with him, its not like he doesn't like my husband he licks him to death when he get half the chance and is as I write this is sat with him on the sofa in the next room.

I would really appreciate it if anyone could give me a clue as to what is going on as I cannot be there all the time to get him out of his crate and fear he will be spending prolonged periods in there when he doesn't need to waiting for me to get home. My husband can sometimes be home as much as 3 1/2 hours before me so he could potentially be in there until I get home.  Life is hard enough living with them being separated and with Jack being epileptic.  I do not want to give up on them, but I am tired (I get up at 7am every single day to medicate him and no longer go on holiday).  Jack's condition is such a big commitment, I am not sure I could cope long term if Rocky carries on like this.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Julie

Get him back to the vets for a check up. Any sudden change in behaviour with a dog who has medical issues needs investigating.

He's not the one with medical issues, its the other one that's on medication.  If I thought he was ill I would, but he is perfectly fine in all other respects and is only acting oddly with my husband, he is the same as he's always been whenever I am with him.  I am thinking he has got too close to me and it is some kind of separation anxiety?

Has anything changed in your home? new furniture perhaps, or have you re-arranged anything recently?
Anything at all really - change in food, routine?

It does seem like he also needs a check up to rule out anything medical, unless there's a real shift in some area that you'd maybe not thought of,

I would still get him checked out - it may only be happening towards your husband but medical issues can create all sorts of peculiar symptoms.  For example one of mine was diagnosed hypothyroid, her main symptom being anxiety triggered by travelling in the car for longer than 15 minutes with no bad experiences in there!  Absolutely fine the rest of the time and for short journeys.  The vet wasn't convinced but she is improving with treatment.

I'd also consider the living situation; it may be that the stress of living in a segregated household with another dog each does not like (and with the other in this case being high strung/anxious and epileptic) may be taking its toll; chronic stress doesn't hit all at once but creeps up over time, eventually causing problems.  Again, this can show in many odd and unexpected ways and you say that you are finding it difficult, so he may be picking up on that.

could it be that your other dog is having fits during the day and worrying the other one?

It is not easy living with them separated and believe it or not they do actually still like each other and play through the baby gates.  When they were together one minute they would be trying to rip each others head off and an hour later they would be cuddled up together on the sofa best of friends.  It is not an ideal situation I know and I am sure it has not helped or possibly contributed towards this current situation however there is no alternative.  I seriously considered rehoming at the time they had to be separated and rung every rescue centre in the area which was a complete waste of time.  The top and bottom of it is rescues are full to the brim with staffies already and I would never put my dog in one if I thought he would be there indefinitely or worse still PTS.

I do find it difficult, as I said I have to medicate Jack every 12 hours which is a big commitment.  I have to get up at 7am every single day whether or not I have had a night out and it does take its toll.  Obviously because they are separated they have to be walked separately all of which I do myself.  I would like to work less hours to be able to spend more quality time with them however because I am being bled dry by the pet insurance this isn't an option, catch 22.  A holiday might help, we haven't had one since we got them but again I can't just dump Jack in a kennel with a condition like epilepsy.

I think Rocky has witnessed Jack having far more fits than we have and he does seem concerned and seems to know to keep out of the way when he has one.  I obviously can't be certain, but I do not think he has that many when we are not there now he is medication as there is normally evidence in his crate and thankfully I don't come across it very often.  It is so difficult to know what to do for the best if I separated their crates I think this would cause anxiety too.

The only thing which seemed to occur prior to this behaviour was a couple of months ago, he seemed to become stressed about my husbands mobile telephone when he received a message.  It was quite a high pitched tone so I got my husband to change it although the new one is not much better, but the best of a bad bunch.  He does turn it down when he comes in and when it doesn't go off it doesn't seem to bother him, so it can't be that it is emitting a constant high pitched noise.

Be careful leaving an epileptic dog in a cage as if he had a fit he might get his chattering jaws or thrashing legs stuck between the bars which would be a disaster. It is fortunate he is insured as at least you have the means to try everything (including human type medication, mri scans etc) which would be prohibitive on the normal purse.

Thanks for the advice but a crate is the safest place for him if he has a seizure when we are not there.  Yes there is a risk he could injure himself, however when he comes around he can be very disorientated and blind and sometimes needs to be physically restrained so would cause himself much more damage if he were to dash around a room blind. 

I wish I did have the means to try everything, unfortunately the insurance will if I am lucky cover his medication for the rest of his life however I am currently now paying almost 3 times as much in insurance for Jack as I am Rocky so still cannot go mad with tests etc.  The have just increased my premium by £20 a month, the previous year was £11 increase so if I go mad with claiming I may as well not have insurance as they will just bump up the premium.