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Rescued Mini Poodle and Alarming Behavior Change

20 10:25:12

Question
Rescued a 15mos. female poodle. Knew breeder and found history.  There are no problems with her siblings or parents.  1st Owner: kept in cage for 8 mos., brought out for company, and dog didn't like strangers. 2nd Owner: dog soiled carpeting, invested in spaying,kept only 3 mos.  Breeder had dog in between these owners and had no trouble other than dog didn't like other female poodles.  We are 3rd owner and are experienced poodle owners.  First 6 days: dog timid, skittish with strangers (made progress), eats well, occasional spats with male mini poodle over a toy or a treat, smart, mischievous, couple of accidents but goes to door to go out, sleeps in crate and doesn't cry, tries to please, good in bath, taken things from her mouth, gentle mouth with treats.  In other words, everything we would expect to see with a new pet until last night...she was in crate and quiet for the night.  After 5 minutes, she started to bark.  Then, the tenor of the bark changed.  The new female was extremely agitated in her cage and barking.  We let her out.  She was digging at the bottom of her cage, trying to pull her towels out, when she left the cage she was barking and turnning in circles, she then was "hunting" around a certain area of kitchen, then she squatted to urinate, and we quickly opened door for her to go out.  She was back in minutes--there was no urine on the floor.  She continued to snuffle around kitchen barking and turning in circles and barking--extremely agitated.  We were able to pick her up and brought her to the bedroom.  She continued to snuffle and bark trying to get her nose under the closet door, jumped on and off the bed barking.  Finally, she jumped on bed, cuddled close to me, and slept through the night.  We set mousetraps in the kitchen thinking she may have been startled by a field mouse--the traps were empty in the morning.  What could have happened?  Could this have been a seizure?  Please advise as quickly as you can.

Answer
Hello Marion,
It just sounds like this dog is trying to settle in to your routine and you can't expect her to just settle down even in a couple of days.  
I don't think that she had a seizure, but it could have been due to the mice that she got so excited.  
You also might get her checked for a urinary tract infection if she keeps squatting and not producing any urine.  

If she keeps acting like she has been, please let me know and I will see what else I can find out for you.

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim