angel

Question
i have a six year old female east german shepard.we boarded her in july for 2 days at a very good kennel for 2 days& 2 nites.since then whenever she hears a cough sneeze or someone blowing their nose she becomes so frightened that she will run and try to find me then hangs very close to me for the rest of the day so close in fact that i have tripped over her several times because she no longer will have anything to do with [including looking at]whoever it is that has coughed .she was so frightened once that she tried to climb the step ladder that i was on hanging curtains we both fell off luckily i didn't fall on her .she is now to the point that if any one who has coughed around her previosly comes around she is a nervous wreck!! since my husband has  allergies  she is becoming more frantic than ever . i called the kennel [who promptly laughed at me]asking if any one had been around her with a cold while she was there and they said absolutely not and they never had this kind of thing reported in the 35 years they were in business . i took her to the vet who checked her ears and and did a complete physical it showed nothing. he then went out of the room and coughed and once again she panicked  he was completely stumped! he gave her some type of relaxer but it didn't help. when ii am the only one home and i cough she starts walking in circles and in and out of the room i am in  like she is looking for a way to escape but there is nowhere for her to go. she has not shown any aggression but we are very concerned because she is a very large dog and when she gets in that state of mind  we are unsure of what she will do . we had her since she was three months old and she is the only shepard that our vet does not put a muzzle on .she is truly the most gentle dog in the world and we love her with all our hearts but we are completely stumped any information i can get would be greatly appreciated .we just wnat her to be the sweet little angel she always was  thank you cindy

Answer
Hi Cindy,  It does sound like something traumatized her at that kennel.  Was it over the 4th of July?  If she was fearful of fireworks, and they locked them in (which most kennels do during the 4th because of dogs panicing over fireworks) the fireworks might have echoed in wherever she was kept and paniced her more.  Either that or someone who obviously had a cough was hard on her and traumatized her.  It is so hard to say in a situation like that because there is no real way to know what happened there, and they are obviously not going to tell you.  I would work at really reassuring her everytime something causes her to panic and try to calm her down as best you can.  Wish I could be of more help, but in this situation it is almost next to impossible to know exactly what happened.

Dawn