Is it Possible that My Dog is Stressed Out?

Our little dog was our baby for almost five years before we had our baby girl. He went with us everywhere and slept in bed with us--and he still does. He was the center of attention, and that is the one thing that changed. He oftentimes went over to grandma's house if my husband and I ever traveled out of town, but every once in awhile we boarded him at a local kennel if my mom was going with us. He never had a problem, and actually seemed to like going there and interacting with the other dogs.

On a recent long weekend trip, we took my dog to the kennel. He actually seemed excited to be there, which was reassuring to me as I pulled away. We thought of him throughout the weekend and wondered what he was doing. I cry every time I have to leave him, and this was no different. Sappy? Of course, but I loved our little dog--he's a part of our family! So upon our return home we went to pick him up and he was his usual self, but just a bit tired from the running around. We've been told that he runs back and forth all day barking at the other dogs, and we sign him up for playtime with the other dogs--he loves it! We thought nothing of his recent visit until he had been home for a day and starting acting strange. He got sick in the middle of the night, which was really nothing unusual as he's always had a sensitive stomach. For some reason this dog loves tissue and continues to dig it out of the garbage and eat it--we thought that was the case this time too.

I made him rice which is a common remedy for him and he refused it, he got droopy, and just wasn't his frisky self. I started worrying, but my husband thought that he had a touch of the flu. After a couple of days of this, I called the vet. He wasn't holding anything down, even water--and I was panicking. The vet told me that sometimes dogs can get overly stressed out, and this oftentimes happens at the kennel. She went on to explain that they work themselves up and this can then create a gastrointestinal reaction such as what my dog was experiencing. It often works itself out, but if it continued that we should bring him in for x-rays to make sure it was nothing more serious.

I made our poor little dog a mixture of boiled hamburger and rice and he gobbled it up. He started perking up a bit and then acted like himself again, even begging at the table again. Was it possible? Was our little dog overly stressed out and just needed time to calm his stomach down? Time would tell us that this was in fact the case--who knew that dogs could work themselves up that much? I think that some of it may have to do with the fact that it's the first time we've left him since we had the baby, and also that I am now home with him all day so he's rarely alone. Will we take him to the kennel again? If it's a necessity then we will surely have to, but we will try to figure out steps to make it a little easier on him. We don't want our dog to ever feel as if he's been left as we work hard everyday to make sure he knows he's a part of the family.

So the point of my story--that yes, even our pets can get stressed out. I would have never believed it until I saw it myself! I suppose that when an animal becomes a part of the family, they too can take on some human characteristics such as stress.