Sudden Wierd Behaviour - Why?

[Alison]

I am hoping someone can enlighten me as to why this happened...
13 months ago I adopted a collie/shepherd mix, 5 yrs old. Louie has been an absolute dream - great with others dogs and people. Louie comes to work with me every day - loves the attention he gets from our customers, courier drivers, the mailman etc. I thought he would be a good fit for the local therapy dog program. The test was yesterday morning and off we went to try out. As soon as we were in the building Louie became a completely different dog - he started whining - something he's never done before. Nor would he let the 2 testers touch him. He spooked and jumped away. Was extremely nervous. I've thought about this for two days and can't come up with a reason for this unexplained sudden behaviour. As soon as we were out of the building Louie became his old lovable self once again.

Could it be that Louie thought he was going to a new home? Any other explanation?
Please help me understand why my well rounded socialized dog would all of a sudden act this way.

Alison

[FurryAngel33]

Maybe he was just scared of his surroundings. Maybe in his previous home he was in a similar situation and something bad happened to him. Were there dogs areound? Maybe he dind't like them or the other ppl around.

[Mom2Many]

Was there a chance that you were anxious about the test? As I am sure you know dogs feed off of our emotions so if you were anxious and nervous it may have rubbed off on Louie.
Also has he been socialized in buildings outside of your work? These were all unfamiliar people to Louie and maybe since it was outside of his comfort zone he got edgy.
Try socializing him more outside of the work/home environments so he can adapt more quickly to changes in scenery and remember to remain calm, positive, and upbeat when he is in unfamiliar surroundings.
Good luck with Louie, he sounds like a terrific pet.

[calgal]

They do have that 6th sense and it's possible he picked up on something that made him fearful. Also smells play a major roll with dogs and he could have picked up a very threatening scent. Any number of things can trigger this behavior. Take his favorite treat, go back to the building and start talking sweet to him, giving him a treat for sitting or something all the while you get closer to the building and then inside. Make it fun for him.

[flyndog]

It sounds like your dog needs more training in a variety of environments with lots of different types of people. A therapy dog can run into some pretty *interesting* situations, so the more places and the more people you can interact with, the better so he can generalize the behavior.