Puppy Angry With Her Own Tail

[pennyw74]

Our puppy is now just over five months. In the time we've had her, she has played with her tail if she's caught a glimpse of it but just in the last few days, she is really getting angry with this tail. She is growling at it while she's got it in her mouth, it's almost like she's at war with this tail. She doesn't do it all day or anything but if she starts it, she'll do it for a few minutes, attacking, growling, biting, even to the point of biting it too hard, she yelps.

Is this a normal thing at this age?

[Kavik]

What do you do when she chases her tail? Can you distract her from it? Tail chasing is not a habit you want to encourage, some can get obsessed with it. How much stimulation, walking, training does she get? Maybe with more to do, or a kong with peanut butter etc in it she will decide there are more fun things to do.

[sjl79]

Our puppy is now just over five months. In the time we've had her, she has played with her tail if she's caught a glimpse of it but just in the last few days, she is really getting angry with this tail. She is growling at it while she's got it in her mouth, it's almost like she's at war with this tail. She doesn't do it all day or anything but if she starts it, she'll do it for a few minutes, attacking, growling, biting, even to the point of biting it too hard, she yelps.

Is this a normal thing at this age?

Our trainer told us to stop tail chasing pronto! He said it can be sign of epilepsy in older dogs but in puppies it can lead to OCD spinning. So we verbally correct each time we see it, and usually offer a toy or a distraction. I saw Timmy spin to chase his tail this morning and one quick verbal and he went to happily play with his toys. We've been training it out for 3 months now (he's 6 months on Monday). and it seems to be something he does when he is bored, so we rotate his toys to keep him busy and that has really helped.

[pennyw74]

What do you do when she chases her tail? Can you distract her from it? Tail chasing is not a habit you want to encourage, some can get obsessed with it. How much stimulation, walking, training does she get? Maybe with more to do, or a kong with peanut butter etc in it she will decide there are more fun things to do.

I have been watching her to see exactly what she's doing. I can distract her, though.

She has training every afternoon (going over what we learnt at puppy school), she has fetch games and chasing games with us. She has a kong with the little biscuits inside and plenty of different toys.

I will try to discourage it.

ETA she also gets a walk almost every afternoon and goes to the park every weekend (unless it's raining).

Edited May 8, 2008 by pennyw74

[sjl79]

What do you do when she chases her tail? Can you distract her from it? Tail chasing is not a habit you want to encourage, some can get obsessed with it. How much stimulation, walking, training does she get? Maybe with more to do, or a kong with peanut butter etc in it she will decide there are more fun things to do.

I have been watching her to see exactly what she's doing. I can distract her, though.

She has training every afternoon (going over what we learnt at puppy school), she has fetch games and chasing games with us. She has a kong with the little biscuits inside and plenty of different toys.

I will try to discourage it.

ETA she also gets a walk almost every afternoon and goes to the park every weekend (unless it's raining).

Sounds like she is really stimulated, I'd say she just needs to be corrected and distracted so she understands it's not a desireable thing to do.

[Dogsfevr]

Tail chasing is not normal behaviour

[Cosmolo]

As others have said- definitely discourage such behaviour! OCD is a serious problem that can be very difficult to resolve once it is well established.