jrid Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 A friend adopted a dog (not a border collie)from the local shelter 10 days aog. Other than some territorial issues with a visiting dog there have been no problems until last night. The dog just started violently attacking its lower hind leg. The dog seemed to be in some sort of "zone" and only heard them when they touched it. Touching it seemed to be the only way to stop the attack. This occurred two or three times last night. He said it was frightening to see it happening. They will take it to the vet, but I was wondering if any of y'all had experienced anything like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixie_Girl Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 No, but I saw a show on animal planet where a dog would attack itself when it was eating! It had severe food guard issues and when it would go to eat, it would see its front leg, and would attack it. Sometimes in doing this it would attack other parts on it. Don't know what happened because it was on the show, Planets Funniest Animals. I was shocked! I saw nothing funny about it! There was some serious issues going on! Maybe there is some pain in the leg and the dog is trying to get to whatever is making it hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSnappy Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 If you watch that video closely, you will see there is a fine thread attached to the dog's leg and they were pulling the leg close to the bone to get the dog to display the behaviour for the camera (you can hear the person behind the camera say "okay, one more time" or something like that). It's not asimilar to the video of the doberman who would attack his own front paws beside his food bowl. It's a normal canine behaviour (ie resource guarding) taken to a ridiculous extreme by a dog with, for lack of a better term, crossed wires. Like you, I did not find the video at all funny. I found it really sad. As for the OP - I would take this dog to the vet to first be sure that there is nothing wrong with the leg. A pinched nerve or other damage causing pain can cause an animal to attack the source. It may also be a form of seizure (especially if the dog is "zoning out" when it occurs), or an OCD behaviour, in which case it would need to be explored in more detail by a vet or a veterinary behaviourist (or whatever the US version of that is). But it's definitely not a "normal" behaviour and really needs to be addressed by a professional. How scary. RDM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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