A very naughty springer spaniel

[Chelle-82 10]

A little advise please

 

My meg is an 11month old springer spaniel, she is absolutely wonderful, she is my very first dog so i am learning all the time just as she is as im training her..

 

She is a lovely, gentle girl and really easy to train, she loves learning new tricks, from a very early age, about 8/9 weeks old i had her doing the basic training (sitting, laying down, toilet is outside and not indoors!!) and she was brilliant and picked everything up really quickly, she's great on and off the lead, she never leaves my side and well she's basically a joy to have around.....

 

HOWEVER!!!! She is obsessed with chasing lights and shadows!! and it is driving me mad! i have scratches and bite marks all over my walls and furniture and this is not because she's a biter because she has never been a biter, but if a light shines on the walls or the furniture she'll leap up from where she's sitting, even if she's half asleep! and go and try to scratch and bite it.... I have tried numerous different techniques to get her to stop and nothing seems to be working, i've trawled the internet, i've asked the vet (who just said to remove her from the situation) tried that!!! she goes straight back.. Whatever this obsession is it drives her to the point of madness! and me...

 

Also, she has adopted this new obsession of following me wherever i go around the house! i can't go to the bathroom without her being on my feet! and if i shut the door she will sit outside crying and scratching it... She has only started to do this over the last two weeks...

 

Any advise would be much appreciated.

[medusa 16]

I have never had a springer, but from people I know who have had them, these issues sound quite normal for the breed I'm afraid. They are prone to obsessive behaviours and the usual advice that I have seen is that the dog needs more outlets for their energy, both mental and physical.

 

How much do you challenge Meg? Have you introduced her to scenting, dummy retrieval work or any of the games which use her brain power so that her time in the house is time off after working hard? How about interactive toys?

[Chelle-82 10]

Yes i have also heard their a energetic breed that requires lots of training! i knew that before i got her.

 

I take meg out for an hour very morning before work, she spends the entire time off the lead running nonstop, chasing balls, sticks and then the same again or a bit more after work so monday to friday she gets 2 - 3 hours exercise a day and then at the weekends she gets between 5 - 10 miles walks (weather permitting) and depending on where i take her, usually around the dams or lady bower. She gets plenty of exercise and she's always being entertained in the house as well as i am constantly training her to do new things..

 

But it doesnt really matter where we are, what time of day it is, if she sees a flash of light or shadows she's off chasing them... she'll be falling asleep and all of a sudden jump up wide eyed ready to chase..

[ccit 10]

Your pup is not naughty but she does have a condition which is the equivalent of human Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Has anyone in the house encouraged this? Sometimes it can initiated and/or made worse by people thinking it is funny and spurring the dog to do it.

 

You need to look at your home and eliminate any kind of light that will be fixed upon by pup. In the summer you may have to close the curtains if the sun is shining very strongly and glinting on the furniture, ornaments etc. Keep mirrors well out of the way too.

 

Hours of exercise will not stop this habit; consider seeing the vet and/or behaviourist because the dog is likely to continue to do it throughout it's lifetime unless effective strategies are put into place to prevent it.

[Chelle-82 10]

Hi ccit,

 

No she hasn't been encouraged it is just something she has adopted herself, she is also getting extremely glingy which she wasn't doing until a couple of weeks ago... Apart from these two traits she's fantastic in everything she does..

 

Thanks for the advise

[H_Hounds 10]

Have you tried leaving the room? Spaniels are very loyal and will follow you everywhere, as your springer already shows. They also love praise so pleasing you is great because they get praised for it and really hate displeasing you - so leaving the room should distract her from the lights and she should follow you. Leave the room very calmly totally ignoring her, do something unrelated and go back to what you were doing calmly ignoring her. In theory, if you are very consistent, she will associate you leaving as a result of her obsessing over the light. But like Medusa says, they are an obsessive breed. A friend of mine had a springer (now passed from old age) and he developed an obsessive habit of chewing and licking a spot of his leg so much he would make it bleed - also not uncommon.

 

I think prevention is better than cure and agree with medusa, try some breed specific games like scent work and retrieval. My cocker Alice loves 'find it'. I make her sit in the hallway, get her to 'sniff' an item, wait while I hide it in the living room then call her to 'find it'. This is her favourite game. You have to teach them how to play but for her finding the item is reward enough and she doesn't get treats. My other cocker loves balls and will play with a ball by himself for ages.

 

Also, make sure she has plenty of toys to chew. Mine have stagbars that they are allowed to chew in the house.

 

I was also taught that some toys should be stored away and only brought out for certain times - to make that toy more valuable. Ours only have the ball out when we're watching telly etc.

[ccit 10]

I've just re-read one of your posts and the amount of exercise she is getting is an awful lot for a puppy. It's amazing that you have time to dedicate to this but the big problem is that one day you might not and then you have trained her to expect it. It is possible to over-exercise dogs.

 

It's now too late, but up to one year of age, exercise should not be too lengthy or vigorous to support the development of the joints. This is the advice given by the Kennel Club but some people refute it. It sounds like your whole life is dominated by your dog and that the relationship is very intense. To start adding more activities in the hope that her behaviour improves is not sensible.

 

The dependency on you and the fixation with light could be signs that something needs to be tweaked slightly. None of us can say what the best method is of treating this. A face to face assessment is best in order to see exactly what the dynamics of the situation are. Your dog is very young and you need to sort this out before it becomes deeply entrenched. Find a good behaviourist and see what can be done.

[medusa 16]

I'm certainly not going to advocate that you give her even more exercise than you currently give her; my query about challenging was more about the mental workouts that springers are so good at, as well as checking that you were giving her as much exercise as she needed (and you are, because you were already aware of the breed characteristics before getting your dog- yay- you'd be amazed how many people just really aren't ready for that). Really bright dogs that have a tendency to obsessive behaviour are healthier with that obsession being about their interactive toys than reflected light that makes her dash off all over the place in an unsafe way.

 

However, better than that would be to work out some proper management and prevention of this issue and I agree with ccit that a vet visit to rule out anything physical they could pick up and a proper behaviourist assessment really are your best ways to proceed, since you've got the basics of exercise covered with Meg already.

 

I did read a very interesting piece (I'll see if I can find it for a link) which was all about the hormonal backlash in dogs who get desperately excited and worked up for a particular activity and how that hormonal situation overflows into the dog's rest periods and excitability at all other times of day for at least a day, usually 2 days, after the really exciting thing has happened.

 

The key piece of advice was that although dogs do need exercise, limiting the number of days per week that they get to do their most exciting and fabulous activity can reduce their overall behavioural problems in the home throughout their week. This entails exercising them in a less engaging and less exciting manner for 2 days in between the sessions of whatever it is that the dog gets themselves into a real state of anticipation about.

 

So if your dog is, like mine, a frisbee monster, you would only have a frisbee session twice a week and in between fetch out a less exciting fetch toy, or road walk, or walk out in the countryside completely without a toy. The dog still gets their exercise but they don't work themselves up to a state of frothing at the mouth and therefore their excitability hormones have a chance to reduce to a base level in between each excitement session.

 

It makes sense to me biochemically (my first degree is in biochemistry) although one of Molly's most exciting things is to arrive home (baying, jumping around in the boot and bouncing off the walls) so it isn't likely to work that well for her.

 

I hope you get her sorted on a new path soon

[angel22 10]

My cocker Alice loves 'find it'. I make her sit in the hallway, get her to 'sniff' an item, wait while I hide it in the living room then call her to 'find it'

 

I tried this with Roxy. I left her in the kitchen and went and hid her kong in the living room. When I told her to go and find it, she looked at me like i was daft, slowly plodded into the living room, jumped up on the sofa, sighed and went to sleep! This game is not suitable for Staffies!

[RiffRaff 10]

I had a beautiful male Springer until about 10 months ago....highly intelligent, but daft as a brush!

When I first visited the breeder, I was curious as to what the mum was doing : staring at the ceiling, then the wall, then the ceiling again....just as you described with your pup, spotting shadows and reflected light!

And guess what?

Our pup eventually did the same, and continued to do all his life!

I suspect it's just something "in the breed", but I also suspect that the biting/scratching will disappear as he matures.

As regards the "loyal following", that's something else that we share!

Toilet, car, garden, kitchen, bed, different room....and he was there!

He calmed down considerably when we got a playmate for him, a Golden Lab, when the Springer was about a year old.....from then on, he was the boss (and father figure?) and seemed to take on his new responsibility with relish.

And you know what?

If I was a bit younger and had more time, and even with the heartache and destruction he occasionally caused, I'd have another one tomorrow....

[medusa 16]

I tried this with Roxy. I left her in the kitchen and went and hid her kong in the living room. When I told her to go and find it, she looked at me like i was daft, slowly plodded into the living room, jumped up on the sofa, sighed and went to sleep! This game is not suitable for Staffies!

 

It's not suitable for GSDs that have self-imposed rules about not eating without you being there (really- she didn't eat for a whole week once when I was on holiday with my family and left her at home with my OH) and about not being allowed to go rooting around in the house behind things either.

 

I know you can teach sheps to seek and hunt by scent, but to get Molly to do it would also have to break a whole load of her personal rules.

 

Springers usually take to scenting games like a duck to water though

 

EDIT- AHA, I found it finally!!

 

http://paws4udogs.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/too-much-of-a-good-thing/

Edited January 24, 2014 by medusa

[ccit 10]

@Medusa - #8 post is interesting. I haven't looked for any articles on the negative effects of over-exercising dogs but I do believe (anecdotally) that it is possible to do so. The comparison is the human who gets addicted to going to the gym or other exercise and then cannot manage without it. I believe it is something to do with endorphins but I do not know if it has this effect in the canine.

 

I know that Springers are high maintenance but I also know of owners of the breed who cannot give them a lot of exercise and the dogs have been fine, calm(ish) and not OTT behaviour-wise. I just wonder if they can get hyperactive due to too much exercise.

 

Anyway, this particular dog has developed two obsessions - light and a fixation on it's owner, both of which can be problematic, particularly the latter because it could well become quite distressed when left. I am reminded of the programme that was on Channel 4 a couple of weeks ago about this very thing. It highlighted how very anxious dogs can become when their owners go out. That is why I hope that the OP can put in a plan of action to reduce the anxiety in the dog.