Strange Behavior in Dogs – Behavioral Lobe Epilepsy – A Neurological Disorder
Website design By BotEap.comYou learn a lot of things after years of being a dog trainer. Thousands of dogs come and go and many seem to fall into the same behavioral categories. They are easy to analyze and prescribe behavior modification courses based on obvious traits. That is until you meet a dog like Simba. About 12 years ago, Simba’s owners called us for help. They lived in Huntington Beach, California, in the heart of OC, living the good life. They had a house on the ocean with their own personal dock in their backyard. They also had two beautiful teenage daughters and a male Golden Retriever puppy named Simba.
Website design By BotEap.comThe call began with Simba’s owner, Robin, explaining to me that the family had purchased Simba as a puppy from a breeder. At six months old, the family discovered that Simba was a very difficult pup. A local trainer was called in to conduct lessons at home. The trainer after meeting Simba was sure there would be no difficulty as Simba was a Golden Retriever (a breed known to be easy to train and very accommodating of commands) and he was a professional trainer. How difficult could it be?
Website design By BotEap.comShe explained that the trainer after several lessons gave up in despair as Simba, no matter how hard he tried, couldn’t be expected to keep a sit or stay command. He was mortified as a dog trainer because he couldn’t explain to the client why he couldn’t provide a successful result with something as seemingly simple as a Golden Retriever puppy.
Website design By BotEap.comRobin now explained that Simba was over a year old and about to be handed over to a ransom or worse. His behavior had become increasingly strange over the past year. He started with his sudden obsession with the French doors in the back of his house. She explained that Simba would be lying in the sun asleep by the door and then suddenly wake up, look at the door and lunge at it as if he were some offensive creature. He scratched and bit at the French doors for a minute or so and then suddenly curled back up in the sun and went to sleep. Also, he sometimes displayed the same strange behavior when the family walked him. He was walking fine and then all of a sudden he would lunge at one of them and start scratching them.
Website design By BotEap.comThe last straw happened when one of the teenagers was taking him for a walk along the boardwalk and suddenly he pounced on her. He fell off the boardwalk with the dog. When they reached the water, the girl feared for her life that the dog would continue to attack her. Apparently the shock of hitting the water had brought him back to reality and he didn’t continue the assault.
Website design By BotEap.comI was immediately curious about this strange behavior and asked Robin to bring the dog in for a consultation. Upon evaluation, Simba appeared to be a normal animated Golden Retriever. Given his history, we agreed to take him in for observation and training as much as possible. They put it in our indoor and outdoor runs that house the larger dogs. These tours have doors that open between the inner and outer parts. These are not dog doors, but regular doors that swing open.
Website design By BotEap.comIt didn’t take long for us to hear a terrible bang coming from the kennels. The kennel technicians came running up, exclaiming that we should see what Simba was doing. We all walked out the door to witness Simba standing on his hind legs pushing the door open and closed as fast as he could.
Website design By BotEap.comHe was pushing the door so hard that he was slamming it shut without getting a chance to close it.
Website design By BotEap.comWe immediately requested that he be put into a gateless race. These races are totally indoors and have a sleeping platform in the rear corner. Simba was deposited here and all was quiet for a while.
Website design By BotEap.comWithin a couple of hours, the kennel techs came back with another request for us to witness Simba’s behavior. This time he was leaning against the kennel wall scratching the pallet.
Despite at least four people standing at the door to his run, he focused entirely on his paddle with the intention of eliminating the demons he had seemingly imagined. Even calling her name didn’t get her attention for about 30 seconds. She suddenly looked up and walked over to the door happily wagging her tail. However, within 30 seconds, her head was turned towards the pallet and she left us for another pallet assault. She scratched and groaned, and dug into the pallet as if her life depended on it. Website design By BotEap.comWell, now I knew this was something I hadn’t seen before! She did not always exhibit this behavior.
He went out training and was actually progressing between these weird periods of being paralyzed by mysterious creatures, or whatever he was seeing in these hallucinations. While he was doing typical behavior modification, I suggested to the owner that we take him to a specialist he knew in Palm Desert who dealt with obsessive-compulsive disorders. We went together and Simba prescribed me Prozac while he was training. The Prozac only had the effect of turning him into a happy hallucinatory. He continued to display these strange behaviors, as well as acting as if he had been stung on the rear by a bee periodically while he was training. At other times, he would act as if he were seeing bees or flies while performing a lie down or sit command. It was so convincing that even trainers would look for the bugs he was seeing. Website design By BotEap.comWhen Prozac was ineffective, we took Simba to a neurologist who diagnosed him with behavioral epilepsy. He explained that Simba had the equivalent of crossed wires in his brain. The fault was
in the behavioral lobe that was causing a seizure in this region. Unlike motor epilepsy
can’t see evidence of misfire except for strange behavior. As with motor epilepsy
he prescribed phenobarbital, which had to be adjusted based on response. this really worked
and after the corresponding adjustments the client had a 70% improvement which made Simba much easier to live with. This diagnosis actually made the difference between being able to tolerate Simba and giving him away. This was partly due to the fact that they could now understand him. Website design By BotEap.comSince dealing with Simba, we’ve only had two more cases of these. One was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who would sit in the window for hours chasing imaginary flies. Another is a Border Collie that we often approach, who will stand on his hind legs and spin in circles chasing imaginary flies for hours on end. The neurologist reports that these are common breeds that exhibit this disorder. Website design By BotEap.comYour average vet cannot diagnose this type of disorder. If you think you are facing something similar to this behavior, you should consult a specialist in Canine Neurology.
Despite at least four people standing at the door to his run, he focused entirely on his paddle with the intention of eliminating the demons he had seemingly imagined. Even calling her name didn’t get her attention for about 30 seconds. She suddenly looked up and walked over to the door happily wagging her tail. However, within 30 seconds, her head was turned towards the pallet and she left us for another pallet assault. She scratched and groaned, and dug into the pallet as if her life depended on it. Website design By BotEap.comWell, now I knew this was something I hadn’t seen before! She did not always exhibit this behavior.
He went out training and was actually progressing between these weird periods of being paralyzed by mysterious creatures, or whatever he was seeing in these hallucinations. While he was doing typical behavior modification, I suggested to the owner that we take him to a specialist he knew in Palm Desert who dealt with obsessive-compulsive disorders. We went together and Simba prescribed me Prozac while he was training. The Prozac only had the effect of turning him into a happy hallucinatory. He continued to display these strange behaviors, as well as acting as if he had been stung on the rear by a bee periodically while he was training. At other times, he would act as if he were seeing bees or flies while performing a lie down or sit command. It was so convincing that even trainers would look for the bugs he was seeing. Website design By BotEap.comWhen Prozac was ineffective, we took Simba to a neurologist who diagnosed him with behavioral epilepsy. He explained that Simba had the equivalent of crossed wires in his brain. The fault was
in the behavioral lobe that was causing a seizure in this region. Unlike motor epilepsy
can’t see evidence of misfire except for strange behavior. As with motor epilepsy
he prescribed phenobarbital, which had to be adjusted based on response. this really worked
and after the corresponding adjustments the client had a 70% improvement which made Simba much easier to live with. This diagnosis actually made the difference between being able to tolerate Simba and giving him away. This was partly due to the fact that they could now understand him. Website design By BotEap.comSince dealing with Simba, we’ve only had two more cases of these. One was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who would sit in the window for hours chasing imaginary flies. Another is a Border Collie that we often approach, who will stand on his hind legs and spin in circles chasing imaginary flies for hours on end. The neurologist reports that these are common breeds that exhibit this disorder. Website design By BotEap.comYour average vet cannot diagnose this type of disorder. If you think you are facing something similar to this behavior, you should consult a specialist in Canine Neurology.