Odd dog behavior?

[whoopdido]

Just wondering if any of you have come across something like this.

All of a sudden my dog seems to be terrified of my grass. Not all grass...just my grass.

A little bit of background. My dog used to LOVE going outside. I have an invisible fence so I would just let her out and let her do her thing until she was ready to come back inside. During the warm months she would literally ask to go outside 5-6 different times throughout the evening while I was home. She seemed to almost prefer to be outside rather than inside.

Even during the winter months she liked to go outside and just screw around. She would always do her business out in the grass too.

For the last couple weeks I've noticed that she never wants to go outside and I sometimes even have to force her to go out since I knew that she hadn't gone to the bathroom in hours and needed to go. Once she was outside, I noticed she wouldn't go on the grass, but would go in the rocks around my patio or sometimes just right on the patio. I thought it was weird, but I guess didn't think too much about it.

Today I picked her up and put her in the grass and she immediately bolted back to house. I put her out there again and sat on the ground and held her and she was shaking like a leaf. Then I put her on a leash and tried to walk her around the yard and she wouldn't budge. She'd just sit there shaking and cowering. I tried putting her in the front yard and she did the same thing. Then I took her off my property and just took her for a very short walk both in front of the house and back behind the house and she seemed to act perfectly normal. No problem whatsoever with grass, but as soon as I got back to my house and she got near MY grass her odd behavior started right back up again.

I looked around to see if I could see anything out of the ordinary in my yard but didn't see anything. I also checked the invisible fence and the collar and made sure it wasn't malfunctioning and shocking her when it shouldn't.

Has anybody experienced anything like this before? Has my yard been invaded by snakes or something and the dog can tell something ain't right?

[Numanoid]

Did you try putting her in the grass without the collar on?

[whoopdido]

Did you try putting her in the grass without the collar on?

I had her on a leash without the invisible fence collar on.

[kuroiinu]

Maybe one day the invisible fence malfunctioned and choked her while she was on the grass.

You'll have to restore her confidence by "going" on the grass yourself.

[Numanoid]

Yeah, it's fairly obvious that she either got choked where she shouldn't have, or got choked where she should have but now associates the choking with the entire lawn. The only solution is to shock her whenever she ISN'T on the lawn, then she'll love being there.

[Vibiana]

Tell her she's got a choice. Either she does her duty or you call in kvrdave, canine behavioral specialist. (then she's going to piss from sheer terror. Problem solved!). :D

[kgrogers1979]

If animals can sense supernatural things that humans cannot, maybe your yard is haunted. Did you bury someone in the yard and now maybe the ghost haunts it?

[whoopdido]

If animals can sense supernatural things that humans cannot, maybe your yard is haunted. Did you bury someone in the yard and now maybe the ghost haunts it?

Well there used to be a graveyard where my house is now but they moved the headstones. Everything should be fine then right?

[Jon2]

Did something happen a couple of weeks ago in your area like a major storm or anything that could have affected your environment? Minor flooding? Something that might have (and might still) interact with the invisible fence?

Off hand, it sounds like something might have happened to your dog involving the invisible fence. I'd have the installer come out and check it all.

[John Richmond]

You've got fleas in your grass. Do a search on how to get rid of them and the ones on your dog.

[whoopdido]

Did something happen a couple of weeks ago in our area like a major storm or anything that could have affected your environment? Minor flooding? Something that might have (and might still) interact with the invisible fence?

Off hand, it sounds like something might have happened to your dog involving the invisible fence. I'd have the installer come out and check it all.

I plan to call the company right away tomorrow morning. I don't know why I didn't put two and two together but a couple weeks ago (now that I think about it, around the time she started acting strange) Comcast was working on something for my neighbor and apparently the guy cut the invisible fence wire by mistake. He repaired it right away and I really didn't think much of it because I tested out the collar and it worked fine. I even tested it again tonight and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with it. Now that I think about it, it's way too coincidental that she started acting weird around the time the wire was damaged. Right now she's completely fucked in the head. At this point she won't even leave the house through the back door.

[Deadman31]

your dog is obviously gay and associates the grass with the gayness.

[The Bus]

Quake's a comin'

[Larry C.]

You've got fleas in your grass. Do a search on how to get rid of them and the ones on your dog.

Or ants that are biting the hell out of her.

[whoopdido]

To the people talking about fleas and/or ants, wouldn't she have fleas or ants all over her? She hasn't been scratching at all. Plus, I spent a decent amount of time out in the grass without shoes on. Wouldn't I have fleas and ants all over me too?

[John Richmond]

You would think so, yes. What part of the country are you in? Here in San Antonio we're getting run over by fleas. My dog hates going in the grass now.

[mclori]

Did she have the collar on when the wire got cut? Could she have gotten a shock when it was cut?

[whoopdido]

I'm in Minnesota. To my knowledge we don't have any extra critters around right now.

She was definitely inside the house and didn't have the collar on when the wire got cut. No possible way she would have gotten shocked.

I dropped her off at my parents house yesterday. I figured I'd just leave her there at least until the invisible fence people come out to investigate on Friday. If it's not the fence I have no frickin clue what the problem is. Apparently she's been acting 100% normal at my parents place. Today was 85 degrees and my mom said she spent most of her time outside.