Compulsive Tail Chasing

[liebejungen]

Has anyone else out there experienced this phenomenon? Our pup is a world champion tail chaser, to the point where i think she has put a permenant crook in the end of her tail. We did not realize this tail chasing was a problem until it was too late. Our Vet told us it was normal, but now, at 8 months old, our trainer/teacher has suggested that it might be a problem and that we should put an end to it.

Since then we have been trying to keep her from doing it, and just saying "no" worked for a while, when she didn't do it at all, but now she is back at it again.

Has anyone else had a problem with this seemingly innocent bahavior?

[JanisN]

Hi, Jon and Welcome from someone else in Indiana!

I saw the pictures of your girl in the intro section, what a cutie pie!

Tail chasing can be a HUGE problem. In some dogs it starts out as a neurological defect. Other dogs do it when they're bored and it becomes a habit. Still others do it for attention seeking or if they are under stress. Tail chasing inevitably turns to tail biting and that can lead to obnoxious infections and real health issues so you want to stop this before it gets a huge hold on her.

When you say tail chasing, I'm assuming you're not referring to the usual "spinning" that some dogs do when they're excited, but instead to times when the dog will be doing nothing and then all of a sudden start chasing her tail.

Saying "no" doesn't work that well, mostly because of what's going to happen if you aren't there to say "no". IF she's chasing because she's bored, take her out and really run her with the ball or frisbee or any other favorite game. Really work to tire her out.

Or if she does it at a time when you can't take her out to run (9 in the evening's getting a bit chillly around here to do that!) then you can try distraction. Take a kong toy and stuff it with soft cheese, peanut butter, little meat chunks, etc. (they have recipes for kong stuffing on the kong toy website) and give that to her to work on. Or you can buy a toy called a "Buster Cube" that you fill with treats and the dog really has to work the toy around to get the treats.

If she's doing it as attention seeking behavior do NOT reward that. Put her in her crate and leave her there whenever she starts to chase her tail in the house. Say "ut uh, NO chase" and whack her right into the crate. Walk out of the room and let her think about where attention seeking got her.

Sometimes, tail chasing can get SO bad (the dog actually burns the neural pathway into the brain) that you have no option but to put the dog to sleep. It's really good to catch it before it gets a strong hold.

JanisN

[liebejungen]

Thank you, JanisN for your advice. You are correct in assuming that it is not an excitement thing but rather a spontaneous assumption of the behavior.

Like i said. No stops the behavior, and it went pretty much extinct for about 3 weeks then started again. It maybe partially boredom and partially an attention getting thing. If i think about it, she resumed the behavior right after coming home from a long weekend at my parents home in MI. While there she had constant attention for 5 days, and when we came home she has somewhat less than constant attention, especially during the week.

I knew that I should be distracting her, but often it happens when i am busy on something else and I do not make the effort that I should to find something else to replace the behavior.

I think we are still at the point where we can train her out of the behavior, but we need to be more consistant and pay closer attention to what she is doing.

I will check into the buster cube. I think we have a Kong Ball similar to it, but we need to make better use of it.

I wish i had known better before she chewed a hook at the end of her tail.

Thanks again,
Jon

[trigger]

Jon, go on Google, type in Canine Compulsive Behavior. Lots of info you should read there.

[trigger]

Jon. Sorry, it's Canine Compulsive DISORDER.

[sandy]

Hi Jon,

As Trigger suggested, there is a lot of other information and advice on this on the web so be sure to check around.

I just wanted to add that one of our club memebers has an older bitch that they believe chases in relationship to her diet. Has anyone else ever heard this? Tail chasing because of nutritional intake? Just something to think about. Good luck!

[JanisN]

Canine nutrition is now being looked at MUCH more closely. There's an ongoing study that links carbs with aggresion in dogs and the anecdotal information seems to show that lowering intake of carbohydrates reduces dog aggression!

I know that my dogs seem to be MUCH more evenly keeled on the raw foods and when one gets into the kibble (aside from REAL gastro issues) they seem edgy and sharp.

JanisN

[liebejungen]

Thank you for all the advice. We are making a better effort to Redirect her attention when she starts to chase. IT really isn't that bad at the moment, so i am hoping we can "train" her out of it, before it gets to a distructive stage.

Thanks again!
J