# Vizla does not want to come out of the closet/Scared



## DeftonyVizla (Aug 24, 2011)

Hello everyone First post 

So I'm worried about my 1 year old female vizla Molly shes been acting weird for the last 4 days and its getting t me already i really don't know what to do. 

Usually my Vizla stays in my 2nd story living room while we go out, we leave her the window door open so she can do her business, on sunday after we got back from being gone a few hours we came back and after her joyious greeting i noticed how when i sat down in the couch she went under my leg and she stayed there, i kind of felt her shaking a little bit so i told my wife she was shaking, she didn't really think anything of it.
after a little bit she went into our bedroom closet where is dark and she did not want to come out. we would get her out and bring her to the living room but she went back in there. shes been doing this for the last 4 days, the first 2 days shes didn't even come out to eat. Shes already slim as it is and now you can start to see her ribs. i really don't know what to do. 

she doesn't want to even be downstairs because of the same reason. about 2 months ago shes didn't want to stay in the garage where we used to leave her when we would leave and to this day she doesn't stay there or like the garage anymore. This had happened in the past but it only lasted a good 3 days and its like shes scared of something in the living room i have no idea, anyway has anybody experienced this with their vizla? any replies would be appreciated.


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## datacan (May 15, 2011)

Hello & welcome,

I don't have any meaningful insight other than perhaps a vet can help with the eating disorder :-[

Our Vizsla boy is 6 months old and eats too much, I was told by the vet.


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## laurita (Jun 12, 2011)

Hi,
Is there any precipitating event that you can think of? Is she skittish in general? It could have been anything that made her scared-- maybe a loud noise (thunder? truck?) or a bug bite (bee sting?) occurred while she was in the living room or outside and now she's developed a general fear of the living room. It's a lot of work and can be irritating, but you will probably have to spend some time counter-conditioning (or changing the underlying emotion attached to those rooms to a positive one) to get her comfortable in the living room or garage again. Picking her up and putting her back in the living room isn't going to help get rid of the fear, it just brings it back at a very high dose. You may want to check for a behaviorist in your area to help with this. I'm not sure just how bad it is and if a counter-conditioning regimen alone can help or if you need some other therapeutic help (there are natural remedies like pheromones that can help give dogs a sense of comfort). 

The regimen below could help, but it sounds pretty bad, so you might want to do it with the help of an applied animal behaviorist. I did this regimen when my dog developed a fear of walking on a leash on the street (these phobias can be really strange). Pay attention to what your dog does when she is afraid and avoid getting her to that level. Picture these signs to be a 100% threshold of fear/stress. You want to keep your dog at about a 5% level. So for instance, if taking her out of the closet completely makes her pant or rush to get back into the closet, you've gone too far. If putting her a few steps from the back makes her a tiny bit nervous, but not too much, keep her there and treat (make sure to use something high value like boiled chicken, blue cheese, sweet potato, or another meat. If she's not interested in these foods, use something/anything that she LOVES). Find out whether she likes these foods when she isn't at a high level of stress (back of the closet or where she's comfortable) because anxiety will trump even the best foods. You'll very gradually get her more and more comfortable and moving her out of the closet, keeping her below her threshold of stress, but again, don't plop her down in the garage or living room where she's going to be overwhelmed. 

I used a group in wisconsin (i'm in texas) via a phone consultation and it helped us immensely. You may want to have someone come in person to help. 

Here are two websites to help you find people certified in animal behavior:
http://www.dacvb.org/resources/find/ 
http://www.animalbehavior.org/ABSAppliedBehavior/caab-directory 

Good luck and please let us know how it goes!


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## Ozkar (Jul 4, 2011)

While it could be behavioural, it sounds more like she isn't well. When dogs crawl into dark spaces, like under beds or houses, or like yours, in a cupboard!! It is usually an indication they are not well. 

My Ozkar was sick last night. He hid in his kennel! He is never outside when people are home, he is always with us. But, he left the lounge room and went to his kennel. I went out to see what he was doing and he was in the kennel shivering also. I just picked him up and took him inside and popped him in bed with me and cuddled him. He settled soon enough and is feeling much better this morning.


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

If it isn't an actual sickness, I believe that many episodes like this are caused by fear. Sometimes things happen that you do not witness directly, such as bee stings or spider bites. These unpleasant experiences leave a deep mark on the psyche of a sensitive animal such as the Vizsla. 

A couple of winters ago, Willie received a pretty big shock of static electricity from one of the living room chairs. He got a shock right on his nose. It was days before he would go near that chair again. When your dog is acting fearful like this, unfortunately, you might never know the reason. :'( 

Just like laurita said, it might take the help of an animal behaviorist to see some improvement... Or it might just fade over time. To be safe, a visit to the Vet for Molly could help to rule out an underlying medical cause.


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## DeftonyVizla (Aug 24, 2011)

hello all,
i appreciate the responses and suggestions, as of now I'm happy to report that there has been improvement the last 2 days. After reading some post i decided to just not fight it, i just let her go in the closet until she felt comfortable coming out herself, i would just worked at my desk and she finally came out and would lay by my feet. 

Because she would hardly eat i would take the food to her in the room where she was now staying and her kennel where she spends the night, finishing all her food, it seems like she was hungry afterall she just didn't want to eat in the living room. 

Today while i left for work i let her roam around the house, opened doors so she could go anywhere she pleased. since i gotten back she's been all over the place playing, chasing the ball, and it seems her appetite opened up. hopefully this is the end of that episode, I wonder if the fact that she hasn't gone through her first heat' has anything to do with this odd behavior, she seems like she's about to go through that stage i mean shes 1 year old, maybe it's part of her hormones reving up or something? ???


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