Dog has sudden fear of basement

[johnjohn320]

Our dog has always, in the 7 years or so we've had her, eaten in the basement, it's where her food is, and she always begged to go down there to eat when she was hungry. but lately, we can't get her down there without considerable effort. She shakes horribly and whimpers, we literally have to push and shove the 100 lb creature toward her food bowl. She's scared to death of this room now for some reason!

We can't figure out anything that's changed, nothing new we've put there, etc. She's never had any marks from a fight with another animal or anything.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[althor27]

Snake?

 

[djheater]

could be a smell or sound, could be the result of nightmares.

Do you send her there as punishment?

 

[Grey]

*gets pictures of pet cemetary in his head*

 

[optoman]

Dogs can smell a lot of things better than most animals. Maybe you have some kind of gas or radon leak in the basement.

 

[johnjohn320]

Originally posted by: djheater

Do you send her there as punishment?

No, like I said, she eats there. She used to love the place for this reason.

 

[Grey]

Did you go down with her and see if she looks any anything in particular? What kind of basement is this? A finished one or a storage type deal?

 

[Moonbeam]

Well the hair is standing up on my neck so I'd really want to check it out. How about another dog. Check for a gas leak, or electrical grounding and shock on the floor. make sure the thing, you know, hasn't moved in. Bring in a priest of ghost buster. Don't go down there alone.

How about another dog as in taking another dog down to see what they do.

 

[mcveigh]

aliens

 

[Evadman]

thoughts:

She knows something you dont. (very possible)
She fell down the stares and hates them. (my dog hates the kitchen floor for this reason, and will run the long way around.)
she is crazy.

 

[djheater]

there are to many possibilities...

It's like very, very simple human psychology.

she's "learned" somehow to exhibit signs of fear (and perhaps you're misreading her display)
She might've fallen or become trapped.
She might have been "punished" and sent there without you knowing.
she may be having a reaction to the food and have terrible indigestion and attribute the pain of it in some way to the location of the food.

at any rate it sounds like (after you've made sure there's no good reason for her to be exhibiting this behavior, like mice or a gas leak) she'll need to be reacclimated to the environment and reassured that it's safe.

 

[Siddhartha]

If the dog does not like the basement let it eat upstairs.

 

[Mustangrrl]

There are demons down there, and you know it.

Um, kidding, I think if you just go down there with her and sort of hang out and be encouraging and soothing to her (either talking to her or petting her if she'll let you), she may become more comfortable in time... a lot of good theories here, who knows what's wrong, but it'll eventually pass.

 

[IBuyUFO]

Maybe the spirits of the dead still linger down in the basement and somehow have awaken from their slumber.

 

[shiner]

Had a friend in college who's dog started acting the same way about the garage in his rental house. The garage was sort of a half assed room and was full of the landlord's stuff so he couldn't really park his car in there. He had always put his dog in the garage when he was in class and she had a bed out there and it's where she normally ate. One day she refused to go out there and would just stand at the door from the kitchen to the garage and bark. This went on for a couple of months and then one night he was coming home late and when the lights from his car went across the garage door windows he saw a head move suddenly. He went inside and acted like it was no big deal but called the police and told them what was going on. They got there and caught a guy in the garage. Turns out he was breaking into the garage every night and sleeping in there. Not sure something like that is possible in your situtation, but you never know.

 

[djheater]

I take back my earlier rational statements and submit that it probably started when the workmen dislodged the glyph-encrusted coverstone from the hellhole.

 

[stormbv]

Yeah, I also think it is a ghost.

 

[richardycc]

Originally posted by: shinerburke
Had a friend in college who's dog started acting the same way about the garage in his rental house. The garage was sort of a half assed room and was full of the landlord's stuff so he couldn't really park his car in there. He had always put his dog in the garage when he was in class and she had a bed out there and it's where she normally ate. One day she refused to go out there and would just stand at the door from the kitchen to the garage and bark. This went on for a couple of months and then one night he was coming home late and when the lights from his car went across the garage door windows he saw a head move suddenly. He went inside and acted like it was no big deal but called the police and told them what was going on. They got there and caught a guy in the garage. Turns out he was breaking into the garage every night and sleeping in there. Not sure something like that is possible in your situtation, but you never know.

hahaha, man I was getting all scared reading it and waiting for the part where the ghost came out...

 

[slycat]

its the boogeyman

 

[GundamW]

"DEAD BY DAWN!"
"DEAD BY DAWN!"
"DEAD BY DAWN!"

 

[gooseman]

I'm guessing that you are a mass murderer and have buried quite a few peeps in your basement! The dog doesn't like that!:Q

 

[sparkyclarky]

Ghosts, it has to be ghosts....

 

[Mill]

Someone has already mentioned it, but is it possible the dog fell down the stairs? One of our dogs knocked over a chair by our bar outside and is now scared sh!tless to walk within 20 feet of it.

 

[BigJelly]

Dogs can sense things, that humans cant. When my sisters dog, chewy, is over he usually lies around; however, he always gets up and acts all gitty and sure enough someone will pull into the drive way 30 seconds later. There is no way of seeing the car pull up but that dog knows it will happen. I'd check for a gas leak or animals down there; dogs get jumpy about things that can't see but hear and a dogs nose is very acute.

 

[johnjohn320]

Yeah, we've checked for all kinds of leaks and creatures, and have turned up nothing so far. It's not the stairs, cause she's not scared of the whole basement, just the one particular area of it.