chasing shadows

[nicland]

Hello my name is Nicole and i live in chicago.
I have a 11 month ol GSD, male, nuertered.
he is excellent except he has become obsessed with chasing shadows at night and in the sunlight. its very annoying and people think hes wacko.he wont even look up from the ground.

the only thing that distracts him is the ball. can someone pls help?

yes hes been through puppy class and all that stuff....obdience...etc.

thanks...Nicole

[Novel]

Hello Nicole.
I used to know a Giant Schnauzer that did something similar. There was nothing more fun than chasing shadows.


My opinion is that it is possibly a stage. At 11 months, male dogs in particular, begin to notice things around them they never noticed before. I've seen dogs fascinated with ceiling fans, some become obsessed with thunderstorms, others find other things to wig them out. They are going through adolescence, and he's maturing mentally, and even though he's neutered he's going through a puberty type stage. If at 16 months, he's still doing it, then I would be concerned, until then, if he's healthy, just let him be silly.

[nicland]

thanks for making me feel better, its just really annoying when he does it and i dont like when people make fun of him for it, ya know?

hes a great dog otherwise ,,,at 11 mos. he already has run of the house...no more crate. he chews nothing, doesnt mess in the house...hes trained off leash.... its incredible.
He listens a little better to my husband, but follows me everywhere...i dont think he even cares when my hubby is most of the time!!!

its just this nuerotic behavior. i was told we have no business having a GSD if we arent going to give him a "job", but he seems fine to me.

[WingedFoal]

Aaah, he just sounds like he's trying to find something fun to do on walks. I'd be one to laugh with joy to see a dog do something like that, and I'd get an even greater joy at an owner who can take it with stride! My Bitty has done silly little things like that out in public, and all you can do is just roll your eyes and laugh with the bystanders.

I've seen many a GSD (and other breeds for that matter) that has some kind of fun way to pass the time (and it seems to entertain people even more!). Don't worry about people laughing at him. You know he's smart and wonderful, and that's all that matters!

[Novel]

GSD's do need jobs, but it doesn't have to be a police K9 job or anything, he just needs to have training, and you seem to be giving him that already. I love to compete with my dogs, shows, agility, obedience, etc. and all of these qualify as work, but so does being good in a home, doing silly tricks, and similar, and you can do basic obedience in your home, you don't have to compete.
GSD's are intelligent dogs that want to make their people happy. They have been bred to learn a task and do it, correctly, repetitively. In this success they achieve joy. He doesn't have to be out doing bitework or Schutzhund to be a complete dog, just like a Weimaraner doesn't have to hunt to be happy, but he needs some sort of active life that can keep him mentally stimulated.
He's your pet, he'll let you know if he's unhappy or needs something more. That being said, the shadow chasing may be a sign of boredom. Get a book from the library of silly pet tricks and start working with him on something like that. See if that makes any difference on the shadow chasing.
Our neurotic Weim calmed dow considerably during his adolescent stage when we gave him several tricks to perform. "Speak" or bark, "Roll Over", "Sneeze" where he sneezed on command, "Over" for jumping over things, "Beg", "Achoo" where I sneezed and he went to get a kleenex, etc. Have fun and you can teach him literally anything that is in his physical capacity.

[nicland]

yes he may have some boredom, but I cant inagine how....hes very ball driven, hes constantly playing ball with someone , running, playing with other dogs, etc...but yea, maybe we do need to teach him more tricks. its hard though....like getting the papaer, i wouldnt even begin to know how to do that. but i can try. hes my baby and deserves to be happy. thanks for the advice

[Novel]

No problem.
Teaching tricks is breaking down each trick into trainable small parts. Like getting the kleenex when I say "Achoo".
First we play at him pulling the kleenex out of the box. Not something he wanted to do at first. I was patient and positive. Once he understood how to do that, I would put the box on the floor and tell him to "get it". When he pulled one out, I'd praise him, and when I told him "here" and he brought it to me, he got praised even more. Caution: This is not the trick for the faint of heart, we had kleenex everywhere!!!!
After he would go get the kleenex and bring it to me, a forced retrieve in obedience lingo, I added the command "Achoo". I'd sneeze and then say Get it, and praised every time he got it right. When he didn't get it right, no praise, but no scolding either, we just tried again. After a while, he was on his way to the box when I achooed, and I dropped the get it. Simple when you break it down, and quite the party pleaser. Not so much fun when you actually have a cold. Then we have to hide all the kleenex, but the dog outsmarted me, and he brings me toilet paper then, just hasn't figured to rip it off, so then I gave him the kleenex box back, less of a mess.

[flyndog]

Chasing shadows and lights can be a type of OCD (obsessive/compulsive disorder). You can discourage the behavior by totally ignoring it. That means don't laugh at it, don't talk to the dog, don't mention it. This goes for other people, too. Completely ignore it. You should of course distract him with the ball to get his mind onto other things. If it continues after ignoring and redirecting for a week or so, then you should take him to the vet. If it is OCD, there is medication for that if it becomes a serious problem for the dog. That is, if he just can't stop.
Kit

[Winjammin]

Maybe instead of teaching him to get the paper, you might want to start with smaller tricks....lay down, roll over, shake, etc. Our Samoyed is extremely hard headed and gets bored easily (he ate our Satellite dish cabling, and dug HUGE holes in our yard). We've taken to teaching him other things when we're at home, and not at dog shows. These little "jobs" we tend to call "helping mom (or dad)". He seemed to be content with this and he tries to play fetch, but he gets "outfetched" by our Corgis. The biggest change came when he was over 18mo, and he just matured, so the little goofy things he used to do don't seem to matter to him anymore.

I would just cringe at trying to teach him the kleenex thing, like Novel did. He would learn the trick and then go crazy with spreading kleenex all through the house, out of sheer oneriness. (Did I mention he has an onery streak a mile wide? )

[Novel]

I would never teach the kleenex trick to Alley the Boxer. She's not ornery, but the idea of pulling those kleenex out of those box would enthrall her beyond my ability to purchase and stock kleenex. Topper is so darn dainty sometimes. He is the softest dog I've ever dealt with, and that was a good experience for me.

[Winjammin]

Yeah, I can see your logic on not teaching the boxer that trick. I wouldn't even be able to teach that one to the corgis, for the exact same reason. It is really funny though to see a Corgi shake. Their legs are so short that they just kind of lean over and stick their foot out.

I even taught all of ours to take capsule medicine and vitamins like treats. No shoving them down the throats. They just take them like doggie treats.

[Novel]

As long as I throw it up in the area, they'll take it. If I put it in my hand, Laney still eats it, but the others give me an eye, like "What are you trying to pull?"

Topper is my spitter. This morning we were walking and I picked some raspberries. Well, he always thinks he wants whatever I'm eating so I offered him one. He put it in his mouth and then spit it a good two feet. Then he goes to look for it so he can spit it again. Silly numbskull...

[rescuechihuahuaowner]

It's a proven fact that dogs and cats can see things that we can't. Not to freak you out, or sound completley wacko, but dogs can see ghost and other supernatural things. It sounds totally weird i know, but we have a cat that does NOTHING but stare @ the bathroom celing for HOURS! Ocassionally moving his head 2 follow something that he sees. It's perfectly normal, all dogs and cats do it.

[Winjammin]

ROFL Novel!! Are you sure there isn't a contest for that somewhere? I'd think Topper would win!

[victson]

Hi,
I have a nine year old female border colie,
She has exactly the same symtoms as the dog described above,
plus she's very frightened of thunderstorms, and she has a strange addiction to cameras (she runs around the persons who is taking the picture).
We really don't know why she is doing this, we do think it is because we took her to early from her mother ( 6-7 weeks old), but this has continued for 9 years which is quite long.
She also has a bad arthritus in her back, whcih causes a slight mobility problem in her hind legs, but the fact that she is 'crazy' keeps her moving, so she is very healthy.
But since the back problem is getting worse i'm scared she might hurt herself in the process.
Apart from a tranquilizer what could keep her calm.
Thanks alot for the help,
Victor