strange, sudden behavior.

Question
Hello, I have a 3yr old female, white boxer. She is normally a very playful, happy dog, but the past 5 days or so she has been acting very strangly, doing things she has never done before and it is worrying me.
She has started crawling under our bed and whining a lot. Now, she has done this in the past when she is losing a tooth or getting one in, but this is not the case this time I don' think and I'll explain why. My son has many toys that make noise and light up and such, and just recently she has started to where when one of them is making noise she will run over to it and start whining and will drag it out of the toy box and start chewing and pawing at it. It seems to make her very nervous and she will pace around and even crawl under the bed because of this. She is drinking well, but not eating as much as she usually does. I even tried giving her fresh food and washing her bowls out again, but that didn't seem to help. She spends most of her time laying on her blanket in the living room, and doesn't get up but to go outside, she doesn't even get up to get loved on much either. We have no cats and only one other small dog in the house. And, just tonight, I had left to go pick up my daughter and was gone maybe 45 min. and when we came home, every toy that makes noise was drug from the toy basket and laying all over the floor. What could be causing this behavior? I'm quite concerned about her.
thank you,
Ann

Answer
Is she spayed? Has she been exposed to a male recently? Could she be pregnant?

Pregnant dogs will act peculiar and especially females in false pregnancies where they are not pregnant but they think they are.

Ruling out pregnancy and false pregnancy; if she is afraid of the noisy toys or has a fascination with them, try to keep them out of her reach and access, and buy her a few new toys for herself. She might be fascinated with them and a new toy will preoccupy her fascination.

Also, if she is lying around and seems disinterested in family and attention, crawling under your bed, and not eating well-- I do recommend taking her to your vet for a checkup and explain her behavior to the vet as well.

A new toy and attention one-on-one might be a solution. To stimulate her appetite and aid in her digestive system, give her whole plain (no flavors) yogurt on her food for awhile, and as a special treat between meals. Sometimes a new flavor dog food is a stimulation too.