I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Delilah has an obsession with….light reflections.
It started Christmas of 2010 when one of my daughter’s friends stopped by. He was showing off his watch/cell phone (I think that’s pretty James Bond) and he happened to have a laser, which is when she got hooked.
Immediately after that she spent her waking time staring at the ceiling. She just couldn’t relax, she was constantly looking around, waiting and watching for the next flicker on the ceiling. This made me extremely sad because she was constantly on alert, no real relaxing for that girl. 🙁 (Just like her Mama I might add.)
If you walk through a room and the sun catches your watch…..up she jumps, barking at the reflection.
We had to stop eating at the dining room table because the light reflecting off the silverware drove her to the brink of insanity. It seemed like every minute she jumped up and barked. Hubby was constantly yelling at her, while I tried to reassure her, finally it was just easier to crate her while we ate.
I thought her obsession had diminished, because I hadn’t noticed it of late. But then Thursday I picked something up from the table and the sunlight hit it causing a reflection to wiggle enticingly on the ceiling and she was up and at it again. 🙁
Does your dog chase reflections, or flickers of light? What would you do if (s)he did?
Thoughts and suggestions are welcome. 🙂
That’s interesting that Delilah is so fascinating by light when Shiva couldn’t care less. We have a laser toy that we use to play with the cat and I’ve tried countless times to get Shiva to chase it. She barely even acknowleges the light on the floor in preference for trying to steal the plastic object from my hand.
I guess what I would do is the same thing I do to prevent Shiva from barking at the door or from chasing birds or cats: counter-conditioning. The key is to find a reward for Delilah that is more enticing than the light, either food or a toy or whatever. Since you can control the lights she is fascinated by to some extent, you could have someone flicker the light and then click and reward the instant the light moves, before Delilah has a chance to do anything. Hopefully after enough repetitions, working slowly in controlled situations, instead of chasing the lights she will start to look at you when she sees something that puts her on alert.
Does that make any sense? It’s kind of like training for reactitivity, only what she is reacting to are lights, not other dogs or people. There are lots of great books and articles on THAT and I think you could apply them to this.
We used to break out a laser pointer to play with the dogs, until Sadie started getting a little too crazy with it so we discontinued using it as a toy. It can cause OCD-type behaviors in dogs, we found out later. We also loved bubbles but Sadie started trying to “pop” dust particles in the air so we had to stop with that one as well. Sounds like Delilah is a bit like Sadie, though once we stopped using those things as toys, her interest in light & dust waned. I think Kristine’s suggestion sounds like a good plan.
I had to laugh at your post about ‘Samson and the woods’ because one of our dogs is the same way. Instead of saying ‘does a bear poop in the woods’ we say does CarrieAnne…The answer is, yes, yes she does, and I think for those same reasons Samson does, although she’s not as obvious about it! 🙂
As for chasing the light, Todd is the only one that does that–The Goldens don’t and they don’t realize what great fun it is! 🙂
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I don’t pay any attention to it… butt ERNIE LOVES LOVES LOVES LIGHT L I G H T …
Just LIGHTS his FUSE. He chases it every chance he gets. I even have a LASER pointer thingy fur him to play with.
We’ve never had a dog interested in a laser light, but then, we’ve never really promoted it. Now, my cats would be a different matter!!
Poor Delilah 🙁 I have noticed that my cat Barnaby gets excited by dust and reflections but he gets excited by everything that moves. Several of the comments appear to offer solutions.
It is the cat in this house that is obsessed with reflections. She will show up out of no-where ti chase one. I have no idea how to stop it.
I don’t either. I think in general cats just like to chase things.
The only light I love is the laser light, we happened upon this by accident, but I’m fascinated by it…. 🙂
Sorry we haven’t got any advice to share…..
Your pal Snoopy 🙂