Different nighttime behaviour?
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| I don't know if it pertains to every dog, but my Bones does the same thing. I took her for two walks yesterday evening, one before dusk and one after nightfall. When it was light, she was nearly perfect on her leash, had no reaction to other dogs barking and growling at her (it happens a lot at our apartments, it seems like everyone has a little yappy dog), and wanted to greet people but didn't obsess over it when I didn't let her; once it was dark, however, she basically refused to walk after a point because she was SO CONCERNED about a couple and their dog (who also growled and barked at her) that we had passed. She wouldn't pull me back in their direction, but she would turn every few seconds and sit down to stare!! No bribes could get her attention, and no temptation of play could budge her! I got her a block away, to the point where her vision of them was totally obstructed, but she STILL stopped and stared at the bushes and building that were blocking her view. Personally, I'm a little more on edge at nighttime when I'm out because we live in a city, and there are always reports of people being mugged/raped, and also a lot of drunk driving. Are any of those worries for you? Maybe they can feel the unease through the leash? |
| I feel pretty comfortable walking in my neighbourhood at night, in some ways, I may even be more relaxed, as there is a lot of traffic, particularly during rush hour, and not much at night. Are dog's nighttime vision poor? Maybe not seeing as well puts her on edge? |
| When we were going through Bailee's "training stage" our Trainer had me walk him everywhere, especially in and around loud trucks, cars etc. We live about 30 miles out of Philadelphia and there is quite a lot of traffic and people. The more he walked in different environments the less apprehensive he got. When we walk at night he is, however, much more alert to noises and anything else we may come across. There is nothing more scary (even to me) when he lets out one of his typical OES resounding WOOFS! These guys have a really distint bark especially when you are not expecting it. He will bark at night whenever he sees something that was not there in the daylight. As friendly as he is he is also rather intimidating when he is "on alert." The more you walk your OES at different times and in different places the more familiar they will become and over time become much easier to walk. |
Dogs have much better night vision, and sense of smell than humans, so maybe she is responding to something you're not seeing. As Oscar behaves just as poorly on the leash during the day as at night, I've never experienced this.  Laurie and Oscar |
| I think dogs see shadows at night they are not used to. And probably smells from racoons and other animals that are not out during the day. Even head lights from cars can be scary to them. We forget that our dogs need to be intorduced to things. They don't know about shadows, etc. It must be very scary! |
| Tiggy is much more skittish at night too. And so was my first dog, a kelpie cross. With both dalmatians it hasnt seemed such a big deal for them. |
| I used to walk at the local park up the hill from my house with Asterisk. She would freak out and REFUSE to pass a garbage can on our walk. She'd cry and tug in the opposite direction. I think there were unfamiliar shadows and sounds that scared her. So now we only walk during the day. |
| At dusk our yard comes alive with critters. Five raccoons last night, and neighbourhood cats, bats flying about...and we live in the city no less (with a bylaw that prohibits outdoor cats)! I think that dogs who usually walk during the day probably are very aware of all those critters and nighttime things that come out, and don't have much experience with them so it's much more scary. I was actually out looking for the raccoons last night, and was standing under the tree they were in the whole time. I finally noticed the silhouettes in the dark. I'm sure my dogs would have sensed their presence (smell, subtle rustling, etc). It took me a good ten minutes of looking at the treetops all around to actually find them. (No worries, they later found our garbage cans just fine...that took ten minutes to pick up and sort through this morning. LOL) It actually reminds me of a time when we were watching our friend's dog Ben. He got out (hopped the fence) and I was out in the neighbourhood calling and calling. I kept hearing rustling in the bushes alongside of me, wherever I went. I could not find him at all, so I headed home, hoping he'd already be there. He stepped out of a bush and walked up the driveway with me. Little creep was never more than ten feet away I'm sure, skulking bush to bush alongside of me. If a large dog can lurk successfully like that just imagine what wild creatures are inside that we never see. And our dogs can hear and smell them all. |
traciels28 wrote: Little creep was never more than ten feet away I'm sure, skulking bush to bush alongside of me. The image of that made me laugh. I could hear that Bugs Bunny "sneakily creeping" piano music as I read this. |
| Yep are dogs go rat hunting at night, they are on high alert! |
| as cappi is only 8mths we havent had much darkness walking, but i did have occassion to take him out around midnight recently. car headlights really freaked him, and he kept turning round to see what was behind us, very skittish. but we will need to overcome as the mornings are getting darker already and the street lights are still on when we go out. |
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