My 2 year old, fixed, female Akita Raiden has been sulking and depressed for the last few days. I've recently been unlucky in getting the swine flu so I've been with her the entire day for the last 4 days. She only sits in her crate with the door open and won't come out. She sleeps in my room with me at night but as soon as I let her out of my room in the morning she goes right back into her crate and doesn't move all day except to go to the bathroom and to eat her food. Its just simply not like her.

I haven't noticed her being sick in any way, she seems completely normal health wise. She won't even come out of her crate for a treat which is entirely unlike her (she eats everything!). I'm not sure what's wrong with her but I've just been leaving her alone in her crate.

There have been no sudden changes to the house other than my boyfriend moving away but that was 3 weeks ago and she only started acting this way within the last few days.

Has anyone else had this sort of problem?

...departure of your BF three weeks ago -- dogs may actually understand short-ish absences of a couple weeks as being ONLY temporary like in a vacation or business trip, but after a few weeks drag by without the missings one's return, they realize it could be a permanent separation & their GRIEF may kick into high gear

It could really be my boyfriend leaving I guess. The only reason why I didn't think it was that, was because he used to be a trucker and would leave for months at a time and she was never sad when he left then. Sadly, he had to move 3 hours away because he couldn't find a job where I live. Maybe she knows its going to be awhile til he's back.

Dogs are very perceptive. Since you know that he will be gone longer than normal, maybe she's reacting to your emotions even if she doesnt have any sense of when he'll be back. If she doesnt improve in a week or so, or gets worse at all, it might be worth a check-up, but otherwise, she'll probably come around in a little while. Poor girl!

Take her out & about to interesting places (my dogs get ecstatic over rides in the car!) and give her some FUN stuff to do: teach your girl some E-Z tricks for high-value treats, or new obedience lessons (but happy ones only, without any corrections!) -- Anything to take her mind off sad feelings...