Anxiety...neurotic behaviors

[katesmith]

Our 2 year old yellow lab has anxiety issues that I have no idea how to deal with. He is afraid of stairs, tile floors, wood floors. He goes in cycles...some days he pays little attention to these 'obstacles', other days he freezes and refuses to walk on them. HELP. We've tried spreading throw rugs around the floors, which sometimes works, sometimes not. I think our dog has hip issues which affect his stair usage but should not affect walking on floors. Even bribing him with food will not convince him to cross the floor on certain days. You can see he WANTS to do it...he will go half way, then back-track. He looks longingly at us and his destination, but cannot work up the courage to do it. Any suggestions???

[kjd]

Kate, if you think he might have hip issues, you should check it out with his vet. Dogs can slip on tile and wood floors (my first dog actually snapped a rear leg getting up off a tile floor). Now, maybe his is neurotic, but I would check this out first. Even the on-again, off-again of this behavior is suspecious. He has no problems when he feels fine; when the hips act up, he is afraid.

kjd