Cavalier got spayed, behavior changed

Hello, I am new to the Cavalier Spaniel world as my puppy just turned 6 months and she is the first Cavalier I have had. Anyway I took her to be spayed last week. You probably think I am crazy but she is a completely different dog and in many ways not a good thing. She was there from Monday morning until Wednesday morning.

This is the first time i have had a puppy as well all of my dogs have been adults when I have gotten them. Anyway she came home and she used to follow me around but now she is in my lap every moment unless I set her down. That I can deal with at this point and we are working on it. I am guessing maybe some separation anxiety???

The barking is the huge problem. I am not kidding you that my dog hardly ever barked. Maybe once or twice a day when she would see someone at first or someone new would come over. Now it is all the time. She barks at the tv, she barks when my husband leaves for work in the morning, she barks just sitting on my lap at night. Most of the time when she is on my lap it is a low growl but sometimes becomes a bark. No one is approaching and no strange noises just sitting and working on my laptop with the tv on she just has a constant growl. If she is in a deep sleep and it woken up she jumps and barks. NONE of this happened before. I am not be over dramatic it is like this dog is a completely different animal. All of this behavior started the day we brought her home from the vet. Has anyone every experienced any of this?

Maybe she is in a different stage of puppy and it just happened to coincide with spending 3 days at the vet. I am just baffled. Any suggestions on what may have happened or what I should do would be greatly appreciated.

Perfect example is right now. My daughter and I are sitting here watching Happy Feet and she is on my lap growling at the penguins. It sounds like a really loud cat purring.

Thank you for your help,
Angela

How come she was at the Vet's for so long? I was always able to pick up my dogs after a spay or neuter the same day as the Op. Maybe she got really scared staying for 3 days at the Vets, I don't know.
I hope she is comeing around soon again.
Elke, ZsaZsa, Bogart and little Lucy

A couple of things. First, wanting to always be in your lap is totally normal with this breed. She may especially want a lap as she has just been through a surgery and would like to be close to you! Did she have a problem spay, as three days at the vet is not really the norm.

Next, barking tends to start around this age as do lots of other new behaviours. She is just entering adolescence! That is when her personality starts to emerge. Up to now you will mostly have seen puppy behaviour -- which is generally much different. Pups sleep a lot more than she will now, they don't tend to bark when young, and have less of a mind of their own, for example.

I'd recommend getting Dr Ian Dunbar's excellent book on After you bring home your puppy. This will give you a great fast reference manual that will help you understand the changes your puppy is now going through and get you training her to manage these new behaviours.

I also recommend reading this:

http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=25333

and there are some great sites for training and behaviour questions pinned at the top of the Training secion.

I bring my dogs home the day of neutering-- it gets loud in the back with the dogs that are under "observation" and those who are ill and hurt. Three days is a long time. I agree that the dog is a "teenager" ---behaviors pop up.

I have not ever experienced this type of thing before, but I do know someone whose female cavalier had surgery and the anethesia caused a problem, perhaps not enough oxygen to the brain during surgery. It changed her personality, and she became a terrible barker and barked at everything to the point the owner had to take the extreme measure of having her debarked. It was that, or make her spent tons of time crated to remove all the stimuli around her that was making her a constant barking machine.

On the other hand, that three days at the vet may have been a bit traumatic for her, but she is post-surgery and probably needs extra loving. Like the other posters, I never left my dogs after a spay or neuter. Though the vet recommended they stay overnight, I wanted to have them here in familiar surroundings where I could be watching them, so they always let me bring them back home the day of surgery.

Sounds as if she was very sensitive to the goings on at the Vets including the continuous barking that is often characteristic of dogs in kennels away from home and feeling threatened. She adapted quickly to the other dogs way of reacting + she's becoming a teenager . You can try changing her behavior with treats for "quiet" and treats when set back down on the floor + lots of praise. What she "learned" in 3 days can be offset with patience. :xfngr:

My ruby is 7 months and she has changed so much, she has found her voice and barks loads i tell people she is talking to me, i was told cavs like to bark before i got her, i really think it must be an age thing ruby would follow me everywhere now she is doing it with my OH and just wants to sit on his lap. Ruby has changed but when she first come to us she was a quiet and scared i think she is so much hapier being with us and knowing we love her so much.