Crazy Dog? Kennel Crazy?

Can dogs suffer from mental illness? This might sound like a strange question, but why wouldn't they? Dogs have more personality than just about any other animal on the planet.

They're much more demonstrative at displaying their mood and temperament than any other animal, except when it comes to fighting, which is a trait all animals share.

But how many animals can compare to a dog when it comes to showing happiness or sadness? Not many. Cats are great pets, but they don't compare to a dog when it comes to moods and personality. So if a dog can have emotions, can they have mental illness?

Well, there is one kind of "crazy dog"; kennel crazy is the actual term that's used, though.

How does a crazy dog (kennel crazy) get that way? Well, as the name implies, it comes from being cooped up in a tight space for months or years on end. Dogs who have suffered this fate are often damaged beyond repair. They will never again be normal.

If the confinement was only a few months or so, they are often salvageable. But if it goes on much longer than that, the poor things are usually beyond hope. It would take a very patient person, and one who's very skilled with working with this type of dog, to take one in to their home.

What are the marks of a crazy dog? Kennel confinement for extended periods of time often causes them to have two very different personalities - one inside the kennel, and one outside.

They can be perfectly friendly and outgoing inside their little space, smiling and wagging their tails for their caretakers. But let them loose, and they'll feel threatened because they're out of the only environment they've known, and they can turn into aggressive, threatening animals.

Others will spend all day just pacing back and forth, or spinning in circles, even outside their cage, because that's all they've done for months. Kennel crazy dogs are sad specimens, and no dog should suffer that fate. Many of them wind up there because they're abandoned. Help prevent this by getting your own dogs spayed and neutered.