Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Our dog, Inuki, will often let out loud, painful sounding yelps while looking at us with a terrified face. For a quick background on her, she was adopted about 8 months ago. We haven't taken her to the vet since then but she is fairly young and doesn't seem to have any health problems... The yelping ALWAYS happens when she seems intimidated by us and perhaps thinks we will strike her. For instance, if I walk too quickly by her, she'll yelp without me even touching her. My mom and I have considered that she might have back pains/slipped discs/etc. but, like I said before, it doesn't seem to coincide with any particular part of her body--only when my mother and I scare her unknowingly. Do you think this is an actual physical problem or just an emotional problem because of possible abuse by previous owners? It just makes me so sad to hear her yelp like this. I'm also a tad worried that our neighbors (we have someone above, below, and to the side of us) will think we're abusing her, because she is looooud and will yelp about once a day.

Ohhh, I feel like I should also mention that she's a big jumper and loves to move and dance around. I think if she did have a serious physical problem (and I do want to have it checked out by a vet as soon as funds allow it--just in case), it would be evident during times when she is playful. If it's all just in her head, do you know if there's any way I can make her feel more comfortable other than to be more careful when moving around her? She's such a sweetie pie that I don't want her to feel scared at all by us.

it's sad when they are so fearful. when we brought the puppy home a few months ago he was a big yelper too, and i felt bad (and he was adopted so who knows what he saw). i felt even worse because our other dog has become fearful over time and i hate to think we're going to have another fearful dog. He would yelp and, even better, submissive piddle all over the place. Sometimes just for me looking at him. it sure seemed to be a "guilty conscience" kind of thing.
The puppy has gotten better over time. But we do a lot of bonding stuff, and go for lots of walks together, and nearly every night both dogs get massages from me. I find the puppy really likes it. You might want to just ignore the yelps, not respond at all, and build up "good" time- walks, massages, brushing, petting, playtime, whatever Inuki likes. (nice name, by the way). Also, when puppy is behaving well or just doing nothing at all i like to give him confidence-building touches (scratches under chin, for example) just out of the blue, that way he gets used to good things coming out of nowhere, not just bad things coming out of nowhere. The first times you try this you might want to have some kind of smelly bait in the hand that touches him so he's more curious about the smell than nervous about the hand, you know?

Chester whines and yelps for no obvious reason. I think sometimes he's just really bored and he knows that gets him attention. Or he sees ghosts.

Thanks. My mom picked out the name on her own. She does look very guilty and scared a lot of the time, but I try to make her feel comfortable. Inuki still is fairly new to our household, so maybe she just needs to grow more used to us moving around and making fast movements. I'll try to bond with her as much as possible while I'm home for break.

it sounds to me that she's just scared. i'm not sure what size your dog is but my mini doxie will often squeal if she thinks we're going to step on her or maybe trip on her... it's the noise she would make if we touched her but we haven't. i think she's just letting us know and she's scared so that's the best noise she knows to make that will get our attention.

I would definitely give the pup as much random good attention as possible to boost confidence. Maybe when she does yelp you can calmly/sweetly call her over to her and give her some snuggles and treats so she knows she has nothing to be afraid of?



Gizmo does this. But there are reasons for it. If I'm not looking at her. If I'm not petting/snuggling her. If I'm not feeding her. If I'm trying to drive and she wants to sit on my lap. If I'm playing with other animals. If I'm eating and not sharing(I guess that's the same as feeding). If I am still sleeping and she wants me to wake up. The wake up ones are the best because she is laying inches front of me on the bed staring at me while doing it. I love waking up to her underbite in my face, it cracks me up and makes it really hard to wake up in a bad mood!