Could anyone please help me solve this problem, I have had Nanna who is now 9 months old for a month now (she is a Giant Schnauzer) and has settled in very quickly and I would not be without her, she was returned to her breeder as the lady apparently had an alergy problem relating to Nanna.  The breeder told me that she chased shadows and the previous owners had thought is was funny and had not tried to stop her in fact they had apparently encouraged her using torches when it was dark etc.  My problem is that she is doing it almost all the time, she came to me untrained apart from being able to sit!  I have been taking her to ring craft and to obedience, she is qualified for crufts, but this weekend instead of paying attention to me or to my treats which usually keeps her full attention she started to pay more attention to the shadows which the lights were making as people moved, needless to say she did not look very alert and paid no attention to the judge when he wanted her to look at him, we got 4th out of 4, but I am not worried about being placed as I am showing her for fun and as a hobby it is just that I am worried that at some point because she is chasing a shadow she may injure herself.

So any advice which can be offered would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks

Dawn

Hi Dawn

It is hard to say why she is chasing shadows without seeing your dog so any suggestion could be well off mark.  Dogs chase shadows for a variety of reasons:  some do it out of anxiety but would probably display other signs of anxiety too such as howling, fouling and being destructive when you left them home alone.

Some dogs do it because they are under severe stress just as humans bite nails, pick skin, self mutilate etc.  Again you would probably see other signs of stress if this were the case - panting, sweaty feet, dry skin, dandruff.  If this was so you would need to identify what was causing the stress and eliminate it.

Some dogs do it because they are bored and if your dog shows no signs of anxiety or stress this might be the case.  Having engaged in this out of boredom and been encouraged to repeat it by previous owners the behaviour becomes a learned response to the stimuli.

One of the best ways of breaking it if it is a boredom thing is to start teaching and training your dog every day.  Play with her as much as you can.  Give her anything to think about other than chasing shadows and if you do catch her at it, quickly distract her and encourage her to do something else.  If her mind and body are stimulated by other things and she is diverted from engaging in the old habit, it should die out.

My gut feeling tells me that it sounds like those people who had her before, because of the excess with which this game was played developed into a habit which caused neurological changes.....and created or brought about a condition referred to as obsessive compulsive disorder. There can be a genetic predisposition or changes can take place with neurons, synapses, neuro transmitters etc. You might want to talk to your vet and see if a beta blocker would help along with behavior modification such as was suggested on this thread.....changing the subject, keeping her busy with other various activities. Good luck and keep us posted on what you find out.

Carrie