[ SHOWGSD-L ] Thank you all for your input....
- From: Barbara Galasso <uwish@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 09:23:36 -0500
Hi All: Not since my memorial tribute to Henry D. did I get such an
OVERWHELMING response to my subject I brought up yesterday about "tail
chasing". I thought I'd get a little response from people sharing their
experiences with me and that would be it. Well, you seen all the e-mail
this generated, but you have no idea of the "behind the scenes" private
e-mails I received. I posted this first thing yesterday morning and got
some really sound advice and opinions. I was off the computer most of
the afternoon, because I really do have another life.......LOL. When I
came back on last night, OMG........that's all I read about. The
morning started out on a nice friendly basis, then it turned dictorial
in some cases, and by the end of the night when the kids were put to bed
and the adult hour began, some of you guys had a grand time with the
title "tail chasing", which I knew probably would generate some risque
responses. You guys never fail to amuse. I admit I had many "I did not
know that" moments. I wish I could have posted some of the private
e-mails, but I guess that's why they are private.....for my eyes only,
and I do believe sometimes people forget to type in the Lists e-mail
address and just hit the send button back to me. In any case, I wanted
to share some of it with you without identifying the sender. As a
reminder to my original post: I said I had a bitch who SOMETIMES
chases her tail and I wanted feedback on this. Some responses: she
must be obsessive/compulsive and neurotic and this sounds like a very
serious condition and I'd be worried if I were you........I had to cut
our dogs tail off and he ended up having a stub like a Doberman
Pinscher, he used to circle and bang his tail against the wall so much
it would bleed (ouch!)........my dog had this all of his life, and come to find
out his sire had this condition too and used to produce
it........someone put hot sauce on the tail, some put bitter apple on
it.............some said no matter what they did, the dog never got out
of the habit.......one poor guy had this conditon all of his life
and ended up dying at the ripe old age of
13 with bloat (seems unfair)......some said it was a playful act and the dogs
were
having fun with themselves making a game out of it, and then there were
those who thought like me and HOW IT PERTAINED TO MY BITCH........one
breeder/judge had a magnificent well known champion who chased her tail
after being crated for 6 months in a roll, (she never did this before
this six month crated incident), and a few more champion owners had the
same thing with their dogs. One of my last letters was written to me
last night before I went to bed and I was too tired to even think about
anwering it then, so she prompted me to write this today. It went
something like this......if this isn't an obsessive/compulsive trait,
and it was caused by an envirnomental condition as you stated, how come
you can't teach her to get out of it now? Let me say this (AND I'M ONLY
SPEAKING FOR MYSELF AND ONLY FROM MY OWN EXPERIENCES - THIS IS NOT
WRITTEN DOWN IN BLOOD AS THE ONLY POSSIBLE ANSWER TO THIS SUBJECT - JUST
MY OWN EXPERIENCE) - I have now owned two dogs that did this similar
thing. My tail chaser now, and in the past a bitch who used to spin.
Both of these bitches came from different breeders/and or owners. Both
of these bitches were raised in crates for the majority of their young
lives. Common sense (forget about the science, genetics, biology, or
whatever you want to call it) - would dictate to you if a young
energetic puppy and in this case a GSD puppy who is a trotting, active
dog is locked up in its formative years (we're not talking about in runs
now where they have room to run), we're talking about crates - no room
to run - they need to run back and forth trotting to excert their energy
and desire to exercise - if they can not run, what must they do
then?..............the only thing for them to do, is to circle in their
crates because they can't move back and forth in a run or yard. So in
answer to the question put to me, can't I train them out of this?......
I don't know. I'm not a "doggy shrink". If it has become an
obsessive/compulsive trait (kind of like what came first, the chicken or
the egg), then yes, it was a learned process, and the dog gave
themselves something to amuse themselves with because of lack of
stimilus in their less than desirable environment. After all dogs are a
creatures of habit..............we all know how true that is through
living with these guys! ANYWAY, my own conclusion and because I'm the
one who put the question out there, I weighed all the responses and I
enjoyed them all and learned from them all, and thank you all, but the
absolutely best one for me personally HOW IT PERTAINED TO MY ANIMAL, was
from Gayle (she'll know who I'm talking about), she sent me three
web-sites pertaining to this topic, and they told of some different
reasons dogs can do this, but the very first one was about the dog
being confined in a small space for too long of a time. I got my answer
which confirmed what I believed all along. If a crate is used to
imprision, isolate, and/or punish, instead of what it was intended for
as a safe, den like bed/dwelling, then IMHO, it can cause the animal
problems. I thanked you before......I thank you again now. I don't
know about you guys, but this subject is closed for me. Always
learning, Barbara Galasso
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