Dutch Shepherd Forum

So my dad had a great idea a when Em was a pup to show her a laser pointer.... Not so good afterall... Now she looks for shadows on anything in the evening time. of course with a ball in her mouth at all times. Anyone else have that problem?

No, but 1) my puppy is only 23 weeks old, and 2) I am very careful about this kind of thing. These DS seem prone to OCD type behaviors to begin with, so I don't encourage anything that could move in that direction.

Sorry your dad got that going with your girl. Perhaps in time it'll wear off...(one can hope!)

kimkim wrote: Anyone else have that problem?

http://www.streepjes.com/albums/Ivil/sl ... 20035.html
(doesn't work as an img tag?? so click to see the pic)

Leih
It has been 2 years since that happened... I saw an episode of its me or the dog where a dog had the same problem. All she did was whenever the dog got in the shadow/refection mode, she would make a noise with her mouth like "bah bah bump", and get the dog to do something else like sit or down. Of course that does not work with extremely high drive dogs:( well it works for a couple seconds, but right back at it again. At least she only does this at home and mostly in the evening. She looks for shadows on the walls caused by reflections from anything, even when cars drive by and the lights shine in through the windows, from the water dish when I fill/clean it and so on.
Marjolein
That is funny! I am trying to figure out how to post pictures also...

kimkim wrote:Leih
At least she only does this at home and mostly in the evening.

That's good!

I know these dogs are scary smart and can develop behaviors with single exposures to stimuli...

Ember is like a kid... so smart it is scary. I know I will never have another dog like her, kind of sad when I think of not having her around:(. She follow me everywhere.

I saw this behaviour (shadow chasing/chasing laser pointer light) on a Dog Whisperer show, and Cesar would correct the dog whenever it would become focused on the shadow or pointer to let the dog know NOT to do it.

Also, I found when my dog gets too focused on something, I give her another "job" to focus on, something I find ok for her to do. Sit and stay is a good "job" that works well for me, so the combination of letting her know what she can't do and redirecting the energy into something else has worked for us. Hope that helps you out