Hi

We have moved house in the past couple of weeks and are now carrying out a lot of rennovation to the new house.  Since we have moved in have noticed our 15 month old dalmatian has started to shake now and then. apart from this is fine with eating/toileting no other problems.  Could this be a way of showing me he is anxious/scared as he seems to stop if i reassure him verbally. He is crate trained so has his usual bed and am trying not to make him aware of the work going on by keeping him in one room.  Any other ideas what this could be and how to stop it.

Many thanks

Chrissy

Could any of the fumes be affecting him, paint etc?  One of our old Cockers had a very severe reaction, swollen face etc, to the fumes of Nitromors.

I dont think that it is as he started it from the first  day we moved in and there were a lot of people and a lot of noise and comotion going on and also we painted at our previous house and he had no reaction to it, but thanks, never thought of something like that - will bear it in mind when we paint in the room that the dogs are in to keep them out of the way til all fumes are gone .

Chrissy

Personally I'd let my dogs see a bit of what was going on (but not when it's really noisy ;)  ;) ) that way the noises might be less worrying, as at the moment they have no reason ;) but you know your dog best and it might not work for him ;)  If you're sure it is the noises you could try some Rescue Remedy to see if that calms him down a bit ;)  You could also try giving him a nicely sweaty t-shirt to snuggle up to, which you've worn to bed a few times as it could be the general strangeness which is worrying him ;)

Hope this helps
Dill

Could be a transferred reaction to an activity or sound that no longer occurrs?  Our Lab never bothered with the electric drill till the OH was doing some bathroom renovations and had to drill through cement board.  That made the most horrible, high pitched, squealing, fingernails on a blackboard kind of sound and the smell was awful too.  Now the dog reacts to drilling on any surface and using the drill to put in screws.  Shaking, just as you say, but she will also try to climb up on my lap.  We can even tell when the neighbours are using their drills.  It wan't hard for us to isolate the cause of her stress.  We did not try much to correct her, I just use it as an excuse to sit with her and read a book or watch TV.  Playing cover up sounds, like the TV or a CD, doesn't help much in our case but might be worth a try, if it is a sound in your case.