A Dog Fights With His OwnReflection In The Mirror.

Rumble / Dogs & Puppies — Hi, I'm the "big brother" to a small dog (less than a foot in height paw-to-head when on all fours) of about 1-and-a-few months' age. Recently we've been having a problem with her mental state and I'm at wits' end wondering why this is happening and what we can do to stop/reverse it.

Whenever she sees her reflection, there's a strong chance she'll become very hostile and anti-social. In our house, it means we've had to block off the TV console in the main floor living room and the lower portions of the foyer coat closet mirror.

What happens is that she'll see her reflection, then move towards it aggressively, making aggressive mouth motions, then transition into growling and barking at her reflection. After that's done, she'll sit pressed up against whichever reflective surface it was, tail curled underneath herself, and growl at anyone coming close - the closer, the louder and more aggressive.

Then she will sit at that spot, pressed up (or eventually lying down) against her reflection, occasionally barking/yelping at her reflection with varying aggressiveness not tied to how long she's been in "crazy mode". We have no idea about when she'll calm down - it could take a few minutes to several hours.

If we try to move something into place to block her off from the reflection, she will attack that item. So far the only "off switch" we've found is sliding long pieces of household miscellaneous items to block off the reflection. After she's been blocked off, she'll go "cool off" in her crate/den, and then she's completely normal and loving afterwards.

We only noticed this sort of behavior in the past few months, starting about mid-July until now. I don't know if it's related, but we only noticed it mid-July after my sister and I had been gone for two weeks on a vacation together. During that time, my parents also decided to go on a vacation together, and we left our dog with my aunt and her family (including a 1-y/o and my teenage cousin). She was completely fine during that time - no aggressive behavior at all, in fact she was apparently very cuddly and loving.

I want to get her to a professional or talk to one about this, but I'm out of options that don't involve cash. I would do it myself but I'm unemployed, my dad won't shell out, and my mom is busy in that "to do list" items get stuck in the pipeline really easily.

Please, has anyone heard of this kind of thing? What is going on with her?