Paranoid pooch

I think that Murphy the dog has some schizophrenic tendencies. When we got him in March he was the most wonderful, mellow puppy. We couldn’t believe how lucky we got. We could keep him off leash 95% of the time, he would listen to us, he rarely if ever barked and he was a great snuggler. The only thing I found odd about him was how paranoid he was when I took him for walks. It was like he thought he was being followed. Maybe he owed a bookie some money? He was constantly looking around and jumping at every little noise. If it was windy out I wouldn’t even bother with a walk. I knew all the lawn flags and leaves would make him crazy. Aside from this little quirk though, he was perfect. In August Michael got a life-sized poster of Miguel Cabrera for his birthday. We never did get to hang it up. Every time we tried Murphy would lose his mind howling and barking at it. He must have thought Cabrera was going to come to life and smother him with his baseball mitt. Being who we are, we thought this was very comical and thus it became entertainment for our guests. We would bring out the poster and pretend to hang it up while Murphy put on his show. Needless to say, the poster had to be thrown away after being put up and taken down 27 times. A few weeks ago I brought a big balance ball home from my office. This too Murphy treated as an aggressive attacker intent on killing his family. The ball remains in a closet. In the basement. This past weekend Murphy really kicked it up a notch though. I’m working from home now so the kids are sharing a room to allow for a home office in Mikey’s old room. We painted their new room a bright green to match the bed covers. Once it was all done it looked great, very bright, but good…ish (it’s REALLY bright). Murphy started his alarmed barking and we couldn’t figure out what he was barking at. We thought it was something in the hallway. But, no, it’s the walls. He’s afraid of the paint. On the walls. The paint on the walls!! After two days of not being able to escape the walls (they do hold the house up, ya know) he has conquered at least one of his phobias. As you can see below, he’s in said room and isn’t barking. Murphy is still a better dog than I could have asked for but he has some really weird issues. I guess if nothing else he fits in with our strange bunch!

Forgot to mention that he's a handsome dude