Confused about puzzling behavior

[sanford]

 At 11 years old, Ruffy has developed odd, contradictory behavior that has me baffled. If I walk into a room that he's in, he immediately leaves. He'll go to the bedroom and remain hidden under the bed. He's not cowering or anxious, he just seems to prefer the den-like space. On the terrace, he wedges, concealed at the far end between the wall and a large planter. I dont see him at all during the day, unless I initiate contact for play, a walk or to feed or groom him. In the dog park he spends the entire time lying out of sight at my feet, under the bench. But if I get up and walk away to talk to someone, he's at my heels like Velcro. When we visit friends or family that he knows and loves, he never stays in the room with us but goes off to another room to remain the entire time by himself, under beds or behind furniture. He seems not to want my company, yet he hates for me to leave the apartment. When we return from a walk, he stays by my side in the entry, standing and tensely staring at me. Only when I tell him "I'm staying here...I'm not going anywhere"  and I take my shoes off, does he relax and trot off to disappear into another room. (Under the bed, of course)!

This has been his pattern for a very long time, but I am only writing about it now because I confess to having been in denial, thinking it was a phase that would pass. But now others have commented on it as well. Yet, for all his distancing,  Ruffy is bonded to, and extremely attached to me. For example, when I leave him with family to run an errand or have a friend hold him as I briefly run into a store, I'm told that he was upset that I left him, tried to follow me and wouldn't be soothed or consoled during my absence. When I return home from shopping, he is delirious with happiness and I always get a tremendous happy greeting! During our long daily walks in the park, he is high-spirited, energetic, rolling in the grass, vigorously running and bounding along, happily wagging his tail, continuously engaging any passer-by for petting, play, etc. 

I don't suspect that anything is physically wrong. Only last week I got the results of his senior checkup: blood, urine, stool, teeth etc. All good to excellent.

Ruffy is either Velcro dog, or disappearing and distant! If there is no other rational explanation for his behavior, could it be that he is just neurotic? I love him very much and I hope that is not the case, but if so, of course I would love him, neuroses and all.

P.S. I apologize for the length of this post. I didn't know how else to cover all these contradictory bases. I'm worried that this situation is unique and that nobody else has similar experiences. I would be very grateful to hear from anyone who has. 

If only dogs could talk!

Edited October 6, 2018 by sanford

[pkcrossley]

well that is interesting.  when he is under a bench or bed, is he napping or sleeping? dogs need a lot of sleep --is it possible he prefers his sleeping in a protected space instead of sprawled out on the couch or the bed?

if this were new behavior i would suspect a toothache or a vision or hearing problem, but you've just had him check out and none of that applies. 

we've seen a lot of stand-off-ishness in cairns, so if he's been this way as long as you've known him, i would guess he just has particular ideas about his space.

where does he sleep at night?

[sanford]

Thanks for the response, pk. (I was hoping for your input)!🙂

To answer your questions:

* Ruffy is indeed napping/sleeping, either under the bed, or in the corner of the terrace, spending most of his days there.

* At night, when I'm up late watching TV in the living room, he's in the bedroom, sleeping on top of my bed, but when I go to turn in, he jumps down and heads either to the living room sofa to sleep on it, or else he goes to sleep outside on the terrace, tucked away behind the large planter.

* I agree with you re characteristic standoffishness in cairns. As you mention, he's always been this way, but to a much lesser degree. I suppose, as they say about us uprights - perhaps with age, dogs also become more of who they always were all along! But his combination of standoffishness and clinginess threw me for a loop.

From the day I adopted him as a 3 year old he would never share my bed even though I would have preferred that. I just assumed that as a pup, his owners might have discouraged him being on the bed.

I think you are correct to point out his seeming affinity for protective, den-like spaces. Example: In an earlier post I mentioned that when I moved into this apartment 7 years ago, I came by with Ruffy to take some room measurements. When I finished and prepared to leave, I searched but couldn't find him, unable to understand how I could lose a dog in a bare, empty apartment. It turned out that he found a "den" inside one of the kitchen base cabinets, where the door had been left ajar!😀

So maybe that's all there is to it.

Edited October 6, 2018 by sanford

[Idaho Cairns]

Our Bonnie has done this for several years.  She has a "hideout" between the couches and behind a blanket basket that she retreats to probably 85% of the time when she is inside.  She only comes out when company comes, to eat, or when Fran goes to bed at night, when Bonnie sleeps with us.
We no longer feel it is unusual, she takes chewies back there, her favorite toys (we have found upwards of twenty stuffed toys behind the couches and basket.
I just assume she feels more secure resting with something over her head and surrounding her.
It's just part of the quirky nature of some Cairns.

 

Edited October 7, 2018 by Idaho Cairns

[sanford]

Hearing your description of Bonnie was very reassuring. Once I decided to pay attention to this behavior, I began to obsess about it, and just getting some feedback really helps me to move on, accept this personality quirk, and be happy that I have a healthy, thriving 11 year old. Many thanks, Idaho!

[bradl]

I'm late to the topic but on board with similar experience to Idaho's.

All our older Cairns found favorite hideouts that they spent more and more time in. And they do sleep a jealousy-inducing amount of time. Stella's preference rotates between a bed in front of the linen closet at the end of a hallway or under the kitchen table (but only if the table is not in use). 

She enjoyed bed privileges for a few months after Echo passed on but then decided her preferred night spot was under the kitchen table. 

[hheldorfer]

This is an interesting post.  I have seen hints of this type of behavior in both Buffy and Nattie but never to this extent.  I've definitely gotten the Greta Garbo "I vant to be alone" treatment from my older dogs, however.  

Good to know that Ruffy is healthy.   

 

 

[kjwarnold]

Interesting post.  With Phinney, I know he likes to lay under things; it could be a coffee table, chair, Kirby's crate, etc.  That’s just the way he is and I don’t think anything of it.  I wonder if that will increase as he ages?  He’s only 2 now.  

It’s different with Kirby.  He’s always liked to be up high and his preference is the couch right where we are.  If he starts hiding behind things, going into corners, laying in another room from us, I know his electrolytes are off due his Addison’s Disease.  It’s actually a common symptom in dogs with Addison’s and on the groups, people report using that as a sign that their dog needs a shot if they’re on Percorten.  

[pkcrossley]

Those are indeed reassuring responses. If a dog that is cuddly becomes uncuddly I guess i would suspect discomfort, either teeth or arthritis. But if a dog has always valued his privacy (and I think many cairns do), I would just assume that he is sleeping. I read that dogs sleep 16 hours a day, which means that we spend 2/3 of each day awake and they spend 2/3 asleep. If you sleep normal hours and go out to work, you'll see your dog awake maybe a hour or two during a weekday. The only thing I would worry about would be "hiding," like sick cats or dogs do. If you've had him checked out and all is good, he's probably just getting on with things. When he's worried about you, he'll check you out.

[Lupinegirl]

I’m glad hiding is normal. Nikki was never a hider, aside from sleeping in a crate when he was young.  He gave up the crate entirely as a bedtime spot when he was six and refuses to stay in it unless we are traveling. Now he glances at his crate every night before positioning himself “just so” so that we can pick him up and put him on my bed at night.  He’d much rather have the breeze from the fan and the cushions of my bed than a hiding place, but I do have blankets on the bed shaped like a basket for him to recline on.

Nikki’s become more clingy with me over the past two or so years, spending up to a third of the day snoozing in my lap if I will let him.  He used to kick blankets out of his bed, and scratch up any blanket or rug on the floor. Now he likes to snuggle with a blanket elevating his head or pressed against his neck and shoulders for security I guess. 

However, even though he’s turned into a Mama’s boy, he’s become more reclusive with my mom and guests.  He doesn’t want to play with kids or other dogs any more and he’d rather hide or recline with me in a quiet room than be around playful pups or handsy people.  He’s still nosy and wants to keep an eye on visitors and family, but he’s just an observer now, not a participant.  He ducks away from hands when people try to pet him, even though he still smiles politely at them and wags his tail and gives their shoes the obligatory thorough sniff. I sometimes feel like I have to apologize for having an introverted dog.   My mom would love to snuggle with him and pet him but he tends to sigh and give her an eye roll that says he’d just tolerating her presence.  At bedtime, he’ll move to his corner and give her the Look that says “aren’t you leaving yet?” Rude.

I had noticed him “hiding” in odd places, like a snug corner between the kitchen table, my chair, and a cabinet. One time he chose to eat his nightly chew in the “cave” under my recliner. He’d like to nap under my recliner but he does not go under there since he does not trust me to keep my feet to myself (I like to reach out and stroke him with my foot when he’s in reach).  When he’s nervous, he paces and acts like he wants to hide somewhere, but he’d rather pace and tell me he’s worried than hide.  Losing his hearing at least has reduced a lot of the nervousness he had been displaying every week.  I’m not complaining about any of the changes.  I like having a lap dog!  I’d never had a lap dog until Nikki started claiming it as his perch. Lol.  He’s just a few weeks shy of turning 14 but he still likes being up higher so that he can keep an eye on his domain when all is calm in his world. And he jumps into my recliner on his own, unassisted! He gets mad when someone else puts him up there and hops right back down. Lol!

Edited October 12, 2018 by Lupinegirl

[Sam I Am]

Sam often after being fed and cuddled goes to our bay window when the curtains are drawn and settles up behind them. He doesn’t stay there very long as he is always on the look out if Rosie is getting more cuddles or treats that in his world should be shared.

Jock   never was a “hider” until the last two or three weeks before he died.  He knew he was dying I am sure and spent the whole day behind the couch, only to come out when there was food. It was a totally different kind of hiding than what a healthy dog dog does. 

[Kathryn]

Oban is just five but has selected definite hidey-holes throughout the house (he has about 5 of them) that he spends his sleeping time in. He will sleep next to me on my chaise if I read in the afternoon, and will definitely sit in my lap at the kitchen counter if Steve is cooking. He will sleep part of the night with us (more in winter) but heads under the bed for most of the temperate to warm nights. The rest of the time, though, we have to go looking for him. He scared the dogsitter once when she didn't find his well-hidden cubby right away. I guess I still consider him cuddly (I have only had cairns, after all.) And I don't consider this odd behavior.

Our first cairn, Annie, went into her crate if the world got boring or she needed a nap. When we got home from work, we always found her there - dog open...

Long story short now - I don't think, if Ruffy doesn't seem ill in any way, that this is abnormal behavior for a cairn. Each is different of course but I think this denning behavior us pretty common...

Edited October 15, 2018 by Kathryn

[Dianne]

16 month old Katie likes to hide under the bed. She is our first Cairn after years of Westies.

My husband takes naps and she usually will lie on the bed with him and look out the french doors.

One day It was too quiet...my ears are always peeled for trouble ...what is she into....strange noises or no noise send me on the search. It was quiet... I searched around calling, finally into the bedroom, and there was this little tail sticking out from under the bed skirt. Now when we can't see or hear her, we just nod "under the bed".

This forum has given us so many "Ah-ha" moments = its a Cairn thing.

She is a little standoffish as compared to our westies and we are learning the subtleness of her affection. Every night she has to give me a lickyface kiss after she receives a full body gentle finger combing/scratch. 

Much thanks for everyone postings, so helpful to a Cairn newbie!

Cheers!

[Kathryn]

Got home from France on Wednesday afternoon and, for the next 24 hours, had a velcro dog.  If I laid down to take a nap to fend off the jet lag, he was right next to me. He hunkered under the covers all night.  Lying on the chaise reading, I had a dog right up on my chest, asleep.

This morning I got up early, fed him and let him out for a short constitutional.  He came in and ran back upstairs to his morning sleep chair (one of our reading chairs in the library).  I guess he has decided we are back again in the regular routine, and DH and I are not going anywhere...

[sanford]

I expect that as wonderful as your trip to France must have been, thanks to Oban, I bet returning home was the icing on the gateau!

Welcome back from me, Ruffy and Oban.

[josie&holly]

Ivy likes to be near me most of time [she is nearly 4], either on the sofa or next to me on my chair]  but in the evening she will quite often take herself in kitchen and sleep on the mat in corner and stay there for a couple of hours!  I think it when she does not like what I am watching on TV!  They just have their funny habits!

[sanford]

Hmmm... I feed Ruffy, walk him, send him to school and pay his medical bills. Now I also have to change my TV viewing habits as well?!?

Edited October 19, 2018 by sanford

[Toto-lee Cairn]

I feel lucky that both of our boys like their crates -- they are side by side, covered in a cover I made for each, and if I cannot find Rupert, the Weimaraner, he is very likely in his crate.  At night he often puts himself to bed, after looking at my husband, as if to say, 'May I be excused now?' He'll then ask Rupert, 'Are you ready for bed? Already?,' and off he trots to the laundry room.

Toto has been used to being in his crate, off-and-on, since he came home with me at 13 weeks.  He likes to nap there, and at night, is secured for sleeping.  During the day, I leave the door open to it, and he'll go in-and-out as he chooses.

I have had to start closing Rupert's door to keep Toto out of it.  Toto likes to drag Rupert's one or two toys out, and he will pull Rupert's blanket out, for some odd reason.  Doesn't matter how many times I tell him 'no, Rupert's crate.'  Just little a little brother, no?

The funniest thing is that for a long, long time, Rupert would not venture into our bedroom as one time, when he did enter, I turned and said not-too-sternly, "What are you doing in MY crate?" 

I do tell the two of them to stay out of my closet, referring to it as "MY crate. NO."  Rupert never enters, and Toto will just stick his head in now, as if to ask, "What'cha doing in there?"

[Toto-lee Cairn]

On ‎10‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 10:06 PM, sanford said:

If there is no other rational explanation for his behavior, could it be that he is just neurotic? 

After living with several different Weimaraners, my husband's dog of choice, I would have to say the Weimaraner takes First Place in the 'neurotic' category.  (I mean that affectionately, but most sincerely.)