My dog is acting weird (again)

[ZEROPILOT]

I have a very odd little dog that has a history of strange behavior and has just started to do something else....
She is about 6 years old and as of about a month ago. Anytime you touch or scratch her back or her sides, she tenses up and starts kicking her back legs. Scratching her sides.
Our vet found nothing wrong in a physical exam or with X rays. And he tells me that it's "normal:.
How can it be normal and she's only now starting to do it?
Any rhoughts?

 

[zovick]

I have a very odd little dog that has a history of strange behavior and has just started to do something else....
She is about 6 years old and as of about a month ago. Anytime you touch or scratch her back or her sides, she tenses up and starts kicking her back legs. Scratching her sides.
Our vet found nothing wrong in a physical exam or with X rays. And he tells me that it's "normal:.
How can it be normal and she's only now starting to do it?
Any rhoughts?

It sounds like a simple nerve reflex to the touch. This is called a "reverberating circuit" which, when stimulated, causes the the reaction you are describing.

It was demonstrated to my class in pre-med by scratching the dog on the side of its ribs or on the backbone just in front of the tail, both of which resulted in the dog repeatedly scratching vigorously at its side with one of its back legs.

I can't say why you are just noticing it now when the dog is 6 years old, though.

 

[Maggie3fan]

Evidently not...
lol

 

[Jacqui]

It sounds like a simple nerve reflex to the touch. This is called a "reverberating circuit" which, when stimulated, causes the the reaction you are describing.

It was demonstrated to my class in pre-med by scratching the dog on the side of its ribs or on the backbone just in front of the tail, both of which resulted in the dog repeatedly scratching vigorously at its side with one of its back legs.

I can't say why you are just noticing it now when the dog is 6 years old, though.

That's interesting. I can't say any of my dogs respond that way. I did, in my youth, have a dog that if you touched her back, she would shake like removing water.

 

[wellington]

Maybe you just now found the right spot or with age she has become more sensitive.
All my dogs, which is many, had a spot that when found would do as you described.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Maybe you just now found the right spot or with age she has become more sensitive.
All my dogs, which is many, had a spot that when found would do as you described.

She's doing it now when I touch her neck or cheek.
Every spot except her chest and belly.
I bought her some sensative skin shampoo.
She's only had like 2 baths (ever)
She a very clean dog

 

[wellington]

She's doing it now when I touch her neck or cheek.
Every spot except her chest and belly.
I bought her some sensative skin shampoo.
She's only had like 2 baths (ever)
She a very clean dog

Hmmm, I wonder if she is having some sort of nerve thing going on. You might want to have her looked at.

Try the shampoo and even some conditioner, or head and shoulders if she has flakey skin. I used it all the time on my dogs way back when if they had flakey skin.

I have had a couple do the same thing if a certain spot was scratched on the side of the neck, but never the cheek.

Keep us posted on what you find out is going on or what helps. Good luck.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I

Hmmm, I wonder if she is having some sort of nerve thing going on. You might want to have her looked at.

Try the shampoo and even some conditioner, or head and shoulders if she has flakey skin. I used it all the time on my dogs way back when if they had flakey skin.

I have had a couple do the same thing if a certain spot was scratched on the side of the neck, but never the cheek.

Keep us posted on what you find out is going on or what helps. Good luck.

I'm washing her this evening

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Update.
The special shampoo did nothing.
But I purchased flea drops from the vet. We applied some to the back of her neck and in about 24 hours she was "cured".

Friggin flea allergies!
And I still haven't seen a single flea. But I'm sure that those marauding feral cats out there are just full of them.
Now she sleeps like a baby and can be petted for hours at a time.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

My dog had some weird moments too, and it can be puzzling. It's great
that you've already taken her to the vet for a check-up, and it's good
to know there's nothing physically wrong.
Sometimes, dogs develop
quirky behaviors as they grow older, and it might be their way of
expressing something they enjoy or find something. Dogs can be
unpredictable little beings!

She has many other "special" things do deal with, daily.
Most of them. Like my having to hold a bowl of water or she's afraid to drink out of it, continue.
That twitching behavior never returned.

 

[jeff kushner]

Z found his dogs "D Spot"

sry, couldn't stop from typing it...I really tried.