[onedn12go]

I have a five year old male chocolate lab. Bless his heart, he is very smart but totally neurotic. He will walk into a room and not turn around to walk out, he backs all the way to the room he just came from. He also will get stuck and not be able to go through a door, sometimes we have to push him through so that he can go outside. Any suggestions? We have asked the vet and he doesn't want to medicate him but he really needs some help.

[tickle]

This a totally cute post and I got a chuckle when I read it. Some dogs get hangups the same way we do. Have you had him for his entire five years?

I am thinking he may have these hangups because of something that happened in his puppyhood if you haven't had him for the entire five years, but who can tell what goes through those little heads when they are a few months old.

I am also thinking you are going to have to put a leash on him when you see him grappling with his dilemna and point him in the right direction; you may have to do this several times but if he doesn't get it, just love him entirely the way I know you do.

But done laugh at him, they hate that.

[LadySam]

Yes, I think the leash and lots of encouragement and patience may be your friends here.
We have a client at our clinic with a similar problem, his dog has some strange door phobia.
We have to walk through first open all the doors to where we need him to be then walk with him and his owner in order to get him into the exam rooms. If he sees a door he freezes.
I used to have a cat that would approach a threshold, stop, and jump across it sideways.
Everything else about this cat was normal, just a threshold thing.
So if he is normal in all other ways and doesn't have more strange hang-ups, I wouldn't worry so much, just work with him and let him be himself.