Odd behaviour in park

[Lightswitchup]

7 month old female pup on usual walk this morning. She suddenly starting whining, tail between legs, ears back, kind of crouching and trying to get very near to me. Seemed like either fear or pain. No obvious triggers, had been sniffing things just prior. Not aware of anything having scared her then or previously. Back home and seems ok now if a bit clingy. I will keep and eye on her obviously. Could it be her coming into season?

Has she been bitten by anything or hurt herself trod on something etc?

It didn’t seem like it as she wasn’t limping or paying attention to any particular part of her body. Nothing obvious. She’s a sight hound so there are usually dramatic limps and ‘scream of death’ if you accidentally stand on her toe or whatever. Whining but softly not a screech.

Are you near enough to houses for it to be an ultra sonic pest scarer? That can cause those reactions in a dog.

There are some houses there yes. Although my other dog was acting normally. But nothing really ever phases her.

Do you have the bitterly cold wind atm? I felt like that when it hit my ears on our walk this morning...

There is often a Siberian wind where we live but it was fine today and where it happened is a more sheltered bit. It’s cold but she has her coat on and was fine and running around one minute and suddenly this odd behaviour.

I walk a couple of dogs like this - it's triggered by a loud or sharp noise. The other dogs they walk with don't seem to notice so I assume they're just extra sensitive.

Could have been something sonic or high pitched that I didn’t hear then I suppose

Check paws, between toes etc - my screaming 30kg sight hound cross was carried home by a very panicky DH a few months ago. She had a small thorn in her paw 😂

However, hopefully it's nothing - can you get her back out to the same place today to see if she has the same response?

It's very likely. One of the dogs I walk really panics - if you didn't know him, you'd think he was unwell or in pain. I'm used to it now and know how to deal with him, but it sets him on edge for the whole walk - he shakes and tucks his tail and panics for ages, bless him.

Any chance she's starting a season? It's on the young side at 7 months but 8 months onwards is possible, depending on breed.

Wonder if she caught a scent of a fox or some other animal?

That's really strange because my little dog behaved similarly last week. Not whining but constantly looking anxious and jumping up at my legs. There was literally nothing around to worry her that I could see and she is usually very confident.
She has just come into her first season today.

I was wondering about her season, and maybe if she caught a sent of some sort because they were sniffing in leaves.

How old is she out of interest?

Maybe it was something like this...
...the little tinker!

@Lightswitchup six months old.

My money is definitely on a season incoming. It can cause them to act really oddly- clingy, overly reactive, fearful, even a bit crotchety and snappy.

Rule of thumb for me is, if the behaviour is very weird and out of character, the cause is somrthing very specific or something that happens really infrequently. Foxes, loud noises, inaudible to human sounds, etc, your dog will in all likelihood have experienced these before even if you don’t clock it at the time as an owner. This is something unusual or infrequent, so suspect an unusual or infrequent cause.