My family have bred and kept Labs for over 20 yrs, and in that time we have never come across such a strange little dog.
We were given her by our neighbours who found her abbandoned in Wales whilst on holiday. She was only 4 weeks old.
To cut a long story short I ended up keeping her and for the first 6 months she seemed totaly normal and fitted in with my other labs and was very sociable.
Soon after she became restless and started staring at anything that moved. If i close the curtains in my lounge and there is sunlight through the gap, she will sit shaking on edge watching dust particles falling in the light. She also watches shaddows, again shaking and somtimes foaming at the mouth. She seems to be in a world of her own and will sit like that for hours and I do mean hours. Sometimes though she seems to come back to earth for a little while and acts relativley normal. I know that alot of dogs have these hang ups but this is stupid. Its getting desperate, she will still do all of the above but now she works her self up so badly that she crys like shes in pain and has even thrown bad tanturums. I really cant take much more of this! I love her so much and its breaking my heart and i feel so helpless. I really have done all i can afford to do, iv had her brain scanned and a few other tests and dog behaviourists round to see her but nothing has been pin pointed. Its driving me insane and i know it sounds stupid but i cant look at her like this without bursting into tears. some one please help

Hayley

What breed is she - I know you mention Labs - is she also a Lab?  Has she had her eyes checked?  Has epilepsy been ruled out?

sounds like some kind of seizure disorder to me.
hope your little one gets some help soon.
kind regards,
linda

Thankyou so much for replying!!

Sorry I forgot to mention she's a little black lab and is now just over 3 yrs. I have had her checked for epilepsy last year and the results were all clear. The fits that she has are more destructive than anything and it takes hours to calm her down. Another thing she does that i forgot to mention, she is totally obssesed with watching me put on my make-up and i find it really un-nerving or when i tie my shoe laces.

O bless her poor little dog,what a good thing the neighbour found her and gave her to you where she is safe. It does sound like fits is she not on medication? She may be obsessed with watching you do shoelaces and make up because she knows you do that before going out, we were talking about this on a thread here the other day,dogs watch your every move as an indication of what is going to happen next, a walk maybe,it is not  necesarily sinister and may not be connected with the other problem :-)

i wondered that my self but i she comes with me to work with two of my other dogs practically everyday and is only without me for a few hrs a day. there not fits that she has there more like nutty tantrums and she only does it when i try to snap her out of these trances

If it's not epilepsy or if the pup isn't actually having real convulsions could it be O.C.D... obsessive compulsive disorder? Dogs can have that. You can look it up on a search. Sometimes beta blockers can help. It's worth a try, plus distracting the dog or interesting the pup in other things when it starts this staring thing.

is it possible for a dog to suffer some form of autisim?

What causes obsessive compulsive disorder in dogs?

http://www.biopsychiatry.com/ccd.htm

http://www.petalia.com.au/Templates/StoryTemplate_Process.cfm?specie=Cats&story_no=1547

There's a couple websites.