TAIL CHASING - Page 2

Hello,

first of all, sorry for my bad english. In this case there could be two opposite reasons for her behavior. The first one is that she is bored (as mentioned) but she can also be overstimulated. If there is no healthy problem I would ask the owners about the training and how often and how long they play or walk the dog.

An additional reason could be distress. Maybe something happened in the family or her enviroment that caused a "Übersprungshandlung" (sorry, I don't know the english word) that developed into a stereotypia.

Prozac along with other psychiatric drugs are dangerous and shouldnt even be on the market in the first place.

Checkout some of these educational and useful youtube videos about psychiatry and the drugs that they're selling to the public.

• Peter Breggin MD Psychiatric Drugs Part 1
• Peter Breggin MD Psychiatric Drugs Part 2
• Peter Breggin MD Psychiatric Drugs Part 3
• Prozac suicide victim
• Want to know where the blackbox warning came from??? Instead of banning the drugs they put a blackbox warning instead
• Psychiatrists On Psychiatry
• The Thud Experiment by David Rosenhan
• Nutrition is Mental Illness!! Orthorexia Better Body Austin (Big Pharma and Psychiatry don't want you eating healthy!)
• Ex-Pharmaceutical Rep. Speaks Out
• Pharma Not in Business of Health, Healing, Cures, Wellness
• Ex Drug Rep -- Manipulating Doctors
• TeenScreen - Controversial and Unscientific
• TeenScreen Petition
• SCHOOL SHOOTINGS I
• SCHOOL SHOOTINGS II
• SCHOOL SHOOTINGS III

Links of interests

• An Early History - African American Mental Health - drapetomania
• Race and Medicine: Drapetomania (video)
• If you're obessed about eating healthy, you have Orthorexia and is mentally ill
• Another School Shooting; Another Psychiatric Drug?

The Drugging of our Children (Gary Null) (SSRI drug dangers)(Columbine shooting) (Full movie!!!!)

In my experience, tail chasing can be controlled, but it takes effort and time.  I've got a couple of tail chasers and I kept their kennel time to a minimum and only when there was nothing happening to stimulate them.  Kept them with me the rest of the time, leashed if necessary to simply stop them doing it and remain calm beside me, with several short play sessions structured to create focus on a tug toy to redirect the frustration.  They will grab the nearest toy now instead of staring or barking at their tail.  If you can't put in the time and effort to stop this now, get rid of the dog, this habit will only get worse and can wind the dog up to the point of frenzy and can result in aggression.  I don't believe this habit can be cured, but can be managed with the possibility of relapse if the owner is not vigilant.

Margaret N-J

Well i dont think prozac will help

In Europe we first putdogs with this behavour on the X-ray and take xrays from the back tail hips if we have taken out a medical problem and  its a behavour problem

We start to look at the owners because wenn dogs that do this have np medical problem its something that the dog lurned
Some people laugh wenn young  dogs run there tails

But it hase nothing to do with the drive of the dog and has to be changed atherweise it can kill the dog

Does she allready bites here tail and she is doing it also wenn she is not whaiting for a play??

You can buy a spay that is to put on tails from pigs they also eat and bite tails its is so bad tasted and smellie that it will get here attention of
But only if you are sure that it is not a probelm of the back or the tail

Barbara

Compulsive Tail chasing is an hereditory neurological disorder, that has already been researched in other breeds.  Do not let it get established in this breed by foo fooing it as high drive and boredom.

True obsessive-compulsive behavior is hard to break: but it can be a bid simply for attention/something to do. Our Rescue boy (now 2, we got him at 6 months) will sometimes start tail chasing when he wants one of us to acknowledge him - we just get up and walk away, without comment, since this isn't an appropriate way to go about it. He immediately stops doing it - once the audience has left the room there isn't much point in continuing. I'm not saying this will work for you, but you can give it a try, dogs very quickly learn what pushes our buttons, and how to get us involved with them - even in a negative way. As far as vets prescribing Prozac it doesn't surprise me - and sad to say, there are a lot of pet owners out there that will willingly give it to their animals rather than try to figure things out on their own.

My Cattle Dog does this tail chasing often. She doesn't bark at it, she chases her tail and sometimes grabs it then starts all over again. She could easy grab her tail everytime, I think it's a game to her. When I make her stand stay for a period outside.... like if I'm getting the horses/cattle out of the barns to cross over into the fields I make her stand stay ... she chases her tail super fast the entire time until I say aw-den, then she directs them to horse/cattle fields. If I didn't make her stand stay it would be complete kaos and broken fence lines the entire way. This is the only time she does it. She used to do it in the house as a pup, I broke that idea quick.

When my Mal was just a puppy she would watch Sara do this ... she just stood there watching then looked at me like WTF !!  I'll never forget those moments.

I'd have to say it's a time waster kinda thing for hypertype dogs. Being bored. Kinda like a wall-runner horse in a 24x24 stall.

Ya, I don't like it.  Reminds me of the border collies they are breeding these days.  Please, let us not turn our GSD's into those. 

I agree with AmbiGSD.

I'm not advocating this for everyone, but but it worked in this one instance.

My uncle has a German shepherd that is such a tail chaser that last 1/4 of his tail is bloody, blistered and deformed. They tried EVERYTHING, behavior modification, obedience, Prozac.......nothing worked. The behavior was embedded and had been going on for over a year.

I was asked to dog-sit for a week while they were on vacation and  realized that this dog understood that he was not supposed to chase his tail. because he'd go hide and do so any way. I borrowed an e-collar, followed and peaked. When he started chasing I zapped him. He had to be zapped about a dozen times....By the end of the week, he was cured.

My uncle still doesn't understand why the dog just stopped. The tail still looks terrible, but the the sores are gone a much of the hair has grown back. One of these days I'll have to tell him, or maybe not.