Dog chasing shadows/light movement....HELP ASAP!!.

[stellasmama]

Help! On Thanksgiving...my brother thought it would be funny....to use his little pen flashlight with Stella. He had her chasing it around the kitchen. And oh she chased it. We made him stop.

NOW...since then we've noticed that Stella is visually following lights/changes in shadows around the house. Arrrrgggghhhhh. Unfortunately we live in a very sunny house. She's frantic watching/chasing the light as it changes through the rooms.

We don't encourage her to do this....we distract her....

How do we break this habit quickly??????????

 

[dogsarebetter]

Lynn has been doing this for over a year now. She is lots better than she used to be though. We just keep trying to distract her.

 

[stellasmama]

We took her to the vet.....he said to nip it in the bud now before it becomes worse. He recommended distracting her....doubling up her exercise....and a low dose of a doggy prozac while we break her from the behavior.

We kept the shades down in the living room today (the brightest room in the house), spent a gooood long time running at the dog park....and distracted her with her toys when we noticed her looking for the shadows/lights to chase.

We want the prozac to be short term...and to help her with this through more vigorous exercise and play time.

 

[Doberluv]

Good for you Stellasmom that you took her right away to the vet. Kudos. This can definitely become obsessive compulsive disorder. I always cringe and hold my breath when people talk about using those lazer pointers...or in your case, a flash light. There are so many dogs prone to OCD. I think the Prozac is a good idea. It sounds like you're in good hands with your vet. People are always so opposed to using medication and while over doing it for a prolonged period isn't usually very good, it can also be very beneficial for prescribed amounts of time. Good luck. I hope this does get nipped in the bud.

 

[Chewperz.]

My ex boss' dogs are like this too, they're border collies and spend a good majority of their days watching shadows and chasing lights. He sees no problem with it, it is not threatening their health they still sleep, eat and interact with family and the pack.
Pink, his Sheltie Border Collie cross will run in constant circles looking for shadows or lights to watch. She barely settles down but she is not in bad health.

I'm afraid there may not be any cure for this, once you pull out the flashlight or lazer with high energy dogs, they practically go insane waiting for the light to come back. I would suggest trying mental stimulation. As 20 minutes mentally stimulating your dog will tire him/her out faster than 2 hours of running at the dog park.