cocker spaniel not interested in going for walks.
cocker spaniel not interested in going for walks.
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sir humphrey appleby

Original Poster:

1,791 posts

240 months

Wednesday 8th October
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Odd one this. All of a sudden Charlie is disinterested in going for walks and seems to prefer going home. This has more or less happened overnight.
He will be eight in December.
In the house he seems ok, always very clingy to me, but he has always been like that. But I think he is just a bit more subdued than normal.
He has been to the vet, had a blood test and that came back all clear. I passed a urine sample to them yesterday so waiting for the results to that. He has been prescribed Metacam and Pardale medications as pain killers, but he isn't limping or seem to be in any pain.
Could he be depressed (do dogs get depressed?) He hasn't been attacked or anything when he has been out so I can't see that he would be anxious about anything. He just seems to have lost his mojo. It is very odd for a spaniel.
This is going to sound very odd, but do dogs miss people?! My eldest daughter started Uni in September and they adored each other, and Charlie was obsessed with her boyfriend as well. Could that be it, as daft as it sounds? I feel really guilty as something has happened, he just isn't the same dog anymore. I'm going to take him out to the New Forest at the weekend, see if a change of scenery perks him up, but it is bizarre how quickly it happened. Has anyone had any experience of this?
This is my view on walks now:

otolith

63,011 posts

222 months

Wednesday 8th October
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Behavioural changes because a significant person has gone away will be described as "anxiety" or "stress" these days, but it's what always used to be called "fretting". It could well be what's going on.

phil-sti

2,914 posts

197 months

Wednesday 8th October
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Could be that, when is your daughter home next, you can see if that cheers him up.

Shooter McGavin

8,400 posts

162 months

Wednesday 8th October
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Do you always follow the same route on your walk? Could something have spooked him on it? Does a different route help?

BobBuilds

4 posts

44 months

Wednesday 8th October
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It could definitely be your daughter going away. We had exactly the same. She came back for a few weekends and over that first year and he got used to her being away for longer but always coming back and went back to normal.

Richard-390a0

3,053 posts

109 months

Wednesday 8th October
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Get your daughter to facetime him or whatever it's called & see if that perks him up?

sir humphrey appleby

Original Poster:

1,791 posts

240 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
The urine test came back all normal so nothing going on there. I did ask the vet if it was possible that he might be missing my daughter, and it could be possible as you say. We are seeing her in a couple of weekends so hopefully that will liven him up a bit again.
Thanks all.

halfpenny43

1,055 posts

254 months

Thursday 9th October
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Having similar challenges myself with my wife's rescue dog.
He's 3 and we've had him just over 2 years. He was always very skittish and scared of strangers and loud noises.
My wife has gone on vacation for 3 weeks and the dog lays on her side of the bed whimpering at night and refuses to walk. Is still eating and drinking.
Called the vet who said as long as he is eating and drinking thats important - but should it go on she can give some "calming" medicine to maybe help.

Good luck OP

netherfield

2,934 posts

202 months

Brother had two dogs , both were let out in a morning by my Brother and then would sit at he bottom of the stairs waiting for Sister in law to come downstairs.

Sister in law died and both dogs didn't eat for three days, after that both were very subdued.

One dog died within six months at 8 years old, the younger dog now went off again after losing her mate, took almost 12 months before she came round properly.

We'd two dogs who used to argue all the time with one another, when we lost one the other really went into a sulk for months.

Padron

205 posts

1 month

They’re amazing empaths dogs, it’s bred into them as pack animals.

Our Cocker reacts to people being ill or upset and does his best to help. Usually this involves lots of licking. He even started fussing over me 24 hours before I realised I had Covid - freaky.

Hope you get your little fella sorted.