[caesarlabrador]

Hi, this is something that I have never seen before so any thoughts are appreciated. We had a litter of puppies and one puppy from the time it was one week old until the time it was about 3.5 weeks old and her eyes opened would scream bloody murder any time you picked her up and handled her around the neck/face area. She would scream at the top of her lungs and refuse to settle for a few minutes. She was in extreme panic mode. I have raised many many puppies and have never had a puppy show this behaviour when being gently handled, since we handle our puppies daily. The vet said that she has seen dogs that don't like to be handled but that she didn't know of any condition that caused this.

So as soon as her eyes opened she was totally fine and this behaviour stopped and you could do anything to her. She is amazingly brave and shows no fear to anything, very social, great with people, and very good in new situations. She was handled probably by about 20 people a week besides us as we always had people coming over to socialize the puppies.

So she has been an amazing puppy and today the behaviour returned on her second trip to the vet. The first trip was with me and she was totally fine. She has been with her new owners for 3 weeks now and she has been a very social and confident puppy and they have taken her everywhere. So today at the vet the puppy was up on the table and looking at her owner and the puppy didn't see the vet come in the room. The vet reached down calmly and grabbed the puppy by the collar to hang onto her and begin the exam. Well, the puppy screamed blood murder and just kept screaming and panicing. Vet said the dog was panicing and not injured in any way so was not screaming because she was in pain(thorough vet exam was done).

This is the first time that she has shown any response like that at all since she was 3 weeks old. Seems to be related to being grabbed suddenly in th neck area when she isn't expecting it. Anytime her owner of any of the people that have seen the puppy in a social context have grabbed her by the collar there is no response and she doesn't mind.

So what is up? Anyone ever had anything like this? What things can we try to get her over it? I have some ideas but want to hear what everyone else has to say.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Josh Conrad]

The pro I train with has a young chessy pup. I believe the pup is around 3 months or a little older?

He squeels like your killing him when you grab his neck or ears. So Jeff (pro) does this a lot, he pulls on his neck scruff, and pulls on his ears, not hard, but enough to bother him.

I have been around the pup, Dozer, for almost 2 months now, he is getting much better. I would suggest just trying to get him used to it. Much like handling a puppy's paws, legs, mouth and etc. You want them to get used to being handled.

 

[caesarlabrador]

Hi, thanks for the advice. When we handle the puppy normally and grab her by the neck etc she is not bothered by it. Just seems to be bothered by it when it is sudden and then she screams and seems unable to relax after that and settle down. I am going to work with the new owner and the puppy starting tomorrow and we are going to take her to some new places to see if we can simulate the vet experience so that we can work with her, because at his place or mine she doesn't show the behaviour anymore. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

Danielle