Posted on 12/24/2008 3:07:43 PM PST by CalifScreaming
We've all seen a dog endlessly chase its tail and wonder to ourselves, why do they do that? Now researchers believe those strange animal behaviors may actually be a psychiatric disorder.
Deborah Santti was worried about her 10-month-old German Shepherd named Lucas.
"It was out of control," she said of his constant tail chasing.
Finally she decided to bring him to Tufts University animal behaviorist, Dr. Nick Dodman. The diagnosis: obsessive compulsive disorder.
"OCD in pets is a real phenomenon," he explained.
It's the same condition that affects millions of Americans who deal with obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors like constant hand washing or locking doors.
Cats and horses can also get OCD. Dr. Dodman says it can be genetic or it can be triggered by something in the environment. Certain breeds are predisposed to the condition. German Shepherds, for example, tend to chase their tails, while Doberman's are more apt to bite their sides.
Dogs bred to hunt and herd need to burn off energy to avoid problems. That, however, doesn't always work.
"Often times, most times, you do need to use medication," explained Dr. Dodman.
Vets use drugs like Prozac or Zoloft, the same drugs given to humans with obsessive compulsive disorder.
Dr. Edward Ginns of UMass Medical School is studying the DNA of hundreds of dogs with the disorder. He says about 75 percent of genes in their DNA makeup look similar to those in humans.
"Since many of the genes in humans are also reflected in the dog genome, we are hopeful the changes in the dog DNA will lead not only to diagnostic but also therapeutic modalities for both pets and humans," he said.
A lot more research is needed, but Dr. Ginns is hopeful there will be a breakthrough.
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“What is over-grooming in cats?”
http://www.cat-world.com.au/OvergroomingInCats.htm
FMCDH(BITS)
I said I thought he sounded bored. My husband said the woman had too much time on her hands if she was having her dog psychoanalyzed.
“Dogs enjoy chasing their tails. For them, it is fun.
If they do it too much, try more exercise. Unlike cats, dogs have massive intelligence and their minds need stimulus else they get bored. Exercise fixes this”
Very true. The German Shepherd is a great example - they have been bred to be active, intelligent and to focus for much longer than most breeds of dogs. If they don’t have something to do, they’ll find something that isn’t constructive.
Exactly! It is so funny we have humanized dogs. Our culture is so obsessed with pleasing others that dogs must be treated as humans. The Mike Vick outrage was one of the worst displays I have ever seen. It was maniacal.
PROZAC? LIBERALS would resort to this.
Well, my dog’s a sled dog by breed, and every time I put a leash on him he pulls me down the street, no matter how hard I’ve tried to teach him to “heel”.
A friend’s Border Collie actually tried to “herd” her kids, hehehe.
“And a few times a week at about 10 or 11 at night, she likes tearing around the house at about 10 thousand miles an hour.”
LOL! When we had cats, that was just the time to sit back OUT OF THE WAY and watch!
Maybe the owner is so boring that chasing his tail is the poor dogs only recourse.
Border Collies and Aussies will herd just about anything that moves. My Aussies try to herd my cats...my cats don't like being herded.
My yellow Lab weighs around 120 pounds.
He doesn't bounce off of the furniture, he MOVES it around.
Mine used to try to herd the cats.
Ticked 'em off big time.
My Choc weighs 45 pounds, 43 during the hunt test season.
I like 'em little -- they can't knock you off the sofa or out of bed, and they can't tip your boat over (well, they can, but it's harder).
Ruby the Whirlwind still gets up enough momentum to tip the sofa over, if she hits it high up on the back.
Friend of mine has a yellow Lab that weighs about 85 pounds. He water skis to the line in hunt tests, and once the dog pulled him off his feet and then stood on his chest to kiss him, and he couldn't get up. The judges were laughing so hard they had to sit down.
I had an 'uncontrollable' puller in my 2nd dog, it took 10 minutes with the Koehler method and she was watching me attentively and not pulling at all. I took her to a training day last Tuesday and one of my friends asked, "When did that dog start heeling?" "This weekend." (that's when the book came in).
The Nordic breeds can be pretty bullheaded, though.
So can the Japanese ones, hehehe.
We have a little Shiba Inu round the corner. His owners keep him inside an electric fence in the yard and he NEVER stops barking. You can hear him for blocks.
I have a barker, but I don't let her bark outside for hours.
Mine isn’t a barker unless he hears someone at the door or is saying “hi” to one of his dog friends. He does have his lil’ howls, though.....just to hear himself, I Think.
He has a deep basso-bark that sounds like it should be coming from a dog twice his size, hehehe.
Ruby (my barking black Lab) barked a big loud deep adult bark for the first time a little while ago -- and you could see she was totally nonplussed - "Did I make that noise?" Shelley (the older Chocolate) rarely barks, but if somebody is at the door she sounds like a gross of Rottweilers. Funny that such a big sound comes out of a little 45 pound spoilt princess.
She is such a schmoozer that the first time she boarded at our trainers she conned her way right into the house. NOW she sleeps on the foot of the trainer's bed. She is an operator. Ruby has no social graces and sleeps in the kennel (and resents it mightily). But she has a buddy in the form of a little 8 month old black Lab female named Boo-Boo. They love to play chase (a game that Shelley is tired of at almost 8 years), and they share a kennel. It's so funny to see two little black noses poking out of the straw piled in a sideways 55-gallon drum on a cradle.
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