I've had my dog for about a year and a half. For about the past three months now Cody seems to be terrified to go into the kitchen. There was no issue or incident I know of which could cause the sudden behaviour change. At first we noticed that he would suddenly jump away from his food and water bowls,as if he was startled. I thought maybe he saw a spider or something like that but we couldn't find anything whenever he did this. Then he started avoiding his dishes altogether but would happily eat if we moved them out of the kitchen.

Now he is at the point where he stops dead at the kitchen entry and will whine and hesitate if he has to go in. This is the same route he has to take to get outside. He will either run straight through to the back door after hesitating or we have to essentially drag or lead him through. When he must go through on his own he'll crawl under the table to avoid the straight path,and we have the same problem when he's coming back inside. We've noticed also that he backs out of the kitchen into the living room as opposed to walking forward. The dog seems genuinely terrified and he's always looking at the same spot or seemingly trying to avoid it,but nothing's there.

So I know what this sounds like to me but has anyone else here had similar issues,any thoughts on what I can do about it? He's his same old self in every other way,except when it comes to the kitchen??

I dont want to sound cuckoo, but maybe he can see something you cant. I lived in a house where there was "activity" and our cat at the time would hiss and spit at things there weren't there, but outside of that house, acted as normal as a cat can.

I'm kind of thinking the same thing,Chrissy. We've had a few interesting things going on here lately in that respect,yet my dog seems only affected by the kitchen. I've tried to read up on what may cause this and aside from paranormal opinions,I can't find much else. I did see that maybe he's hearing mice but we've never had a single one in the house. Also,that they can react to high EMF readings if it's present in the environment. But then why would he only start it recently and not since we moved in? Things that make ya go hmmm...

Maybe when you first moved in, activity was at a minimum, but now that there are people there, it has more "energy" to draw on, so poor doggie is noticing it more?

When we lived in the really active house, at first our cat kind of pounced at things that weren't there, but it didn't take long for him t start hissing and spitting at things we couldn't see, when we moved out a year later, he didn't act that way again "unless he was picking fights with neighbourhood cats" I always just figured that animals see things more clearly than us.

Is it isolated to the kitchen or the flooring in the kitchen? Check to see if maybe he's scared of the slippery floor -- possibly even put a rug down.

Cesar Millan did an episode on that.

I've heard similar stories about paranormal activity making pets behave in odd ways as well. I'd start by looking into the history of the house to see if anything of that nature could be the cause. Not saying I totally believe in this sort of thing-I'm a bit skeptical but I have seen and read many articles and shows about these occurences with pets since they seem to be more sensitive to those sorts of things.

Best of luck!

Good point Zipper,I hadn't thought of that. I could see that being quite possible except for the fact that he's only recently started the behaviour. He was here for over a year beforehand and he was fine. Like I said,there is some odd stuff going on here but I'll save that for the haunting board,still trying to tell myself it's unrelated though. /:

Ghost doggy wants all the food for himself...

One of my German shepherds recently developed a dislike for kitchen flooring he'd been on mine hundreds of times but we visited a friend and he slipped on theirs now he doesn't like them at all. I wonder if he slipped on yours at some point and you didn't see it. That or you have kitchen ghosts

Dogs can see smell and sense things. New appliances by any chance? Different electro magnetic field? Mold or mildew under the flooring? I'm not ready to go all Poltergeist!

Thanks for the responses. No new appliances,or mold that I know of. Cody possibly could have slipped without us knowing it but he really seems to panic when he has to go in there. I'll have to make a video of it sometime to show what he does,and my daughter says he's doing the same thing now when he goes into her room upstairs. I prefer a non poltergeist explanation too,truly!

This is pretty crazy because my cat Bob would look into the corner of our room and sit there sometimes he would climb up on us and just stare in the direction like he was protecting us and when we had our daughter my daughter would stare in the same direction and laugh and giggle me and my wife were alittle freaked out and my cat bob would try an get in my daughters crib and sit in front of her,he would also run in front of us and hiss in the other direction.Has for paranormal activity I found out a few months ago that the man who lived here with his wife committed suicide(in our house)and the wife moved about 3 blocks down.Has of recent (Knock on wood) my cat hasnt done anything like this.

Well now, Poppy has been refusing to eat unless one or both of us was watching her. Shutterbug thinks she may have choked on a bit of food while she was alone in the kitchen and was able to cough it up leaving her scared to eat alone.

Thanks for the insight about the kitchen floor. I'm wondering if she may have slipped on it and almost hurt herself and was alone. I'll have to mention that to Shutterbug.