Weird Dog Behaviour

Last night I was woken by Mishka running from place to place in the kitchen and dinning room. She would run a few steps and then drop to the floor for a few seconds and then run somewhere else with her nose close to the floor as if she was sniffing and drop to the floor again. I thought she may have been poisoned for a moment or having a traumatic problem. When I sat down on the couch, she ran over to me sat on my feet for a few seconds and ran off somewhere else doing the same behaviour.
I decided to give her a small amount of milk which she couldn't pass up. I then got her upstairs and locked the child/doggie gate so she couldn't go down stairs again. She was settled by this stage.
Has anyone else had their dog do this?

 

Yes, but that's only when Peanuts needs to drain her energy and is about to take a nap.

When she got up, did she settle down? Or did she whine and pace?

Maybe she's picked up a scent out of the door she isn't familiar with reason why she's curious and somewhat concerned.

 

My Homer acts like this only if we had guests recently. He probably is still able to sniff their scent and it is bothering him. Maybe it's the same with Mishka? Have you had any guests?

 

Buddy and Oso come in every evening to be fed. They can act wild when they do running around the house, jumping on us. However, when we notice them sniffing around we stop them because this isn't a good thing to see a dog do. We also try to keep track of them when they are in the house, because we don't want them getting into mischief.

 

Did you notice any drooling, staring into space, or muscle spasms? The reason I ask is before and after my sister's dog has a seizure she is beset with a sort of frenetic energy. Before the seizure she gets nervous energy. She will be really tense and walk around until she finally lays down and has the seizure. Then, afterward, she is like a pinball. It's as if the energy pent up by the seizure has been freed and she runs around crazy for awhile.

I don't know if that is what is going on, but it's something to watch for.

You don't have rodents running under the floor, do you? Sounds like Mishka was sniffing out something.

 

She settled down when she was taken upstairs.

At first I thought she was checking out what was below the floor. Our floor is as much as 5 foot off the ground with no cavity for critters so that wouldn't be the case.
When she is interested in possums on the roof or out on the verandah she has quite a different behaviour.
She hasn't done this odd behaviour since which I am happy about as it did cross my mind that she was having a fit or something like that.
What ever it was, is something I would not like to see again.

 

If I see Candy doing that, I would get very worried. It can only mean one thing for Candy. She has detected a scent somewhere and is trying to locate its source. I get worried because if Candy decides that the scent comes from under the floor, she will start digging. Even if it's a concrete floor. She will find some little crack somewhere and keep at it until it becomes a big hole.

 

Argon, I am glad that the behavior has not been repeated. After thinking about it, I wonder if it could have been allergic reaction to something. Or, maybe something that got into her nose that was irritating her. Maybe it made her act this way.

I hope that you don't see this behavior ever again!

 

Dogs. We never have a dull moment. Maybe it was an irritant.
The only comparison I can give to what it seemed like, was as if she drank too much coffee and just couldn't relax in one spot. The nose to the floor was odd though, as she was more slinking around than giving any attention to sniffing.

 

She might have been feeling sick. Sometimes when dogs stomachs are upset, they act oddly. Keep an eye on her either way, hopefully it was just a sudden burst of energy.

 

Our dog become so active when it was already feeding time and not without reason.
Our cat become like your Mishkawithout any reason, he would just run here and there and then, climb anywhere as if he was hunting something. It was like he is playing a game on his own.