Massive Behavioural Changes after 2nd season. - Page 1

Hi All,

 

Am looking fro some advice and guidance and too see if anyone has had the same or similar problems or issues that I am having at present with my 17 month old Belgain Malinois.

 

She has superb breeding, since young has been fantastic in every respect.

 

She cam out of her 2nd season approximately 8-9 weeks ago and since then we have seen some substantial changes to her temperament and general behaviour, these I will outline below:

- Anxiety, when previously super confident and stable.

- Lack of drive - across the board, again when previously through the roof.

- Very slinky around the house - as if she is always getting told off - for which she doesnt.

- All of the ofundation in bite work have now gone out the window - I.e. she is not that interested - she also occasionaly acts and sounds like she is in pain (have checked her over completely and nothing seems apparent)

- Growls with Hackles up at what appears to be nothing, then shows blatant avoidance to me for zero reason. I use markers to train so am not a hard handler or over assertive.

- Seems really insecure in environments where previously she was super confident.

 

I hope that I have explained things as I see them and someone has seen this in their females before? will she come out of this? Is this now her behaviour for good?

 

I was once told that you cannot have truly judge a female until after her second season. Is this also true within the working dog world?

 

Thanks in advance for any light you amy be able to shed on this :)

Forgot to mention that she has been confirmed to be having a phantom pregnancy!

 

Thanks

Get her to a GOOD vet immediately. With false pregnancy, pyometra is very common....she can die from the infection and it is extremely painful.
If a vet diagnosed her with false preg and did not check for pyometra, do not use that vet...go to a GOOD vet.

I have had this happen with a GSD.  I did everything right with her, hauled to sch training since she was a pup, everywhere I could that would allow dogs, socialized every oppurtunity and started training.  All was 'awesome' with her in training and temperment until about 2 months prior to her first heat.  I noticed she slowly started getting 'skittery' about new people/places.  She had her first heat around 10 months.

Both sire and dam were solid in the temperment area.

Sad to say her temperment went down hill from there.  I sent her back to the breeder as I wanted her for breeding and that was not going ot happen.

Breeder did not speak to me for over a year because she thought I had not socialized her, yet she also had been at most of the same training times that we had been at. (same club).

She finally admited that she worked the dog for a long time and she never did come back to what she should have and was spayed and placed in a home.

 

I hope your female recovers, but from my past experience with one dog, I wouldn't hold my breath.

One other thing is I would have a repro vet do a check to see if there is anything going on there to rule it out.

wow I have had a similar experience.  I thought it was just me.  Not the slinking part but rather she acts totally unsocolized.  Our other female is super great, so I wasn't sure if someone had done something or not.

 

It sounds like a fear period. I had a similar experience with a Shiloh shepherd I adopted as a pup. She was fine until abou 10 months of age, then, all of a sudden, she was frightened of EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY, even my best freind whom she had met many times before. She hid behind me, and would have run off home if she hadn't been on a leash.

I have never had a situation that was so baffling, and tried my patience and skill as a trainer so much. Improvement was very slow and gradual, but when she reached the age of 2, and still wasn't able to pass an AKC style temperament test, I rehomed her.

Shilohs are slow to mature, and she finally passed the TT at the age of 4, with her new owner.

I would not give up on her yet. Give the hormomes time to settle down, and DEFINITELY get her checked for pyometra. Hormones can definitely cause personality changes in both humans and dogs. I noticed a marked change in my GSD bitch after her first heat, but in her case, it was for the better. 

Thyroid problems occur in both the malinois and the GSD.  Low thyroid will cause behavioral changes as the first symptom.  Get a full thyroid panel done through Dr. Jean Dodds.  Do not just go to your regular vet and ask for her thyroid to be tested because they will not do a full panel and it will be a waste of money. 

http://www.hemopet.org/hemolife-diagnostics/veterinary-thyroid-testing.html

Thyroid levels often fluctuate with pregnancy and the estrus cycle and it would be common for an underlying problem to rear it's head around this time. 

Here is another article that has some good information:  http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/bizarre_behavior.htm

 

I must be lucky, cause I have not had females go through such extreme personallity changes during heat cycle. A liitle bitchyness (to be expected) with a couple, but basically, no changes, very stable.
False preg with def cause behavior changes, so I would not even ask her to do any thing during this time. And most important is to get her to a good vet ASAP.

Yep, a vet checkup is definitely warranted as it does not sound to me like she feels well at all.  Hopefully she is still eating, and I would take her temperature if you cannot get her to a vet ASAP.  Good luck.  Nan

 

Encourage her to drink plenty of fresh water...

Thank you all for the advice so far :)