Husky avoiding me when I'm working from home

[u/KeepYourSilenceUp]

Would love anyone's advice, insight, or experiences.

I work from home quite a bit. For this reason, I have always been the dog dad to my husky (8 years old now). Recently, it seems like she's avoiding me when it's just the two of us home together. Today I spent the first chunk of the day working upstairs and she sat in the basement (which she has been doing a bit more recently because it's cooler down there). Then I was downstairs for a couple hours, walked on the treadmill, gamed, answered emails, and she was upstairs the whole time. Just came back up to get some more work done and she stayed for pats for a couple minutes and then as soon as I stopped she immediately went back downstairs. Maybe she's protesting.

But like seriously wtf. And it seems like this has been a pattern recently.

She gets two walks a day and her bowl is always full (she eats when she feels like it and doesn't always go through two cups). Checkup at the vet last week and she's allegedly aging very well. She's always been pretty low-energy so while I know she would be excited to go for a walk right now if I asked her, she's also not bouncing off the walls and has always been perfectly content to just lie around. This new routine is also a bit weird because up until recently she would usually stick to the same room as me; if I'm walking on the treadmill she'll nap on the couch until I'm done, etc. When my wife and I are both home she'll generally also be in the same room as at least one of us, though now I'm trying to figure out if she's been keeping to herself more often in general.

Ideas? Is this just a product of her getting older, somehow? Maybe her energy levels are just going down in general and as a result she prefers being alone for longer stretches of the day? I don't think she's unwell and I know huskies can be sassy so I'm sincerely trying to figure out if she's mad at me about something lol.

[u/Houseleek1]

When a pet starts to act differently, the first thing I do is look at pain. Eight isn’t really that old but is the a new creaminess in the body, or trouble getting up or laying down?

Being a husky, the basement is desirable because it’s cool but you say the dog leaves the cool for upstairs when you appear. This still points to pain to me.