My dog is showing an interest in chasing shadows, if I correct him for this will it ruin his drive?

Question

Dear Ed/Cindy,

    First I would like to say that I love your website. I have bought several of your DVDs and products and have always been very satisfied. More important than just a supply store is that I have come to have a deep respect for your thoughts on dog training methods/philosophy (I read many of your eBooks, even the ones that don't really pertain to my situation). I even feed completely raw, and it has been great fun.

    So on with the problem. I have always grown up with gsd's and have a deep love for the breed. This is the first dog that I can truly call my own (finally out of college and on my own) and he is currently 6 months. Within the last month or so he has begun noticing his surrounds much more than before (birds, squirrels, deer, flying insects, etc.) and taking interest in their investigation. I think this is great as long as I can always regain his attention, but for around a week now he has become increasingly more interested in shadows (which are virtually always around). He is not concerned with all shadows (at least not yet) but primarily small faster moving ones like the looped up 30' lease or fingers from a hand etc. Currently I can always gain his attention and get prompt responses to my commands (at least what I expect from a 6 month puppy) but he is spending more and more time watching shadows and responding to the ones that move. Again this behavior is relatively new but from what I have been reading lately has potential for more serious OCD type problems. When he was 4 months I showed him a laser pointer, once and only once, for maybe 30 seconds (honest, only once and very brief). I mention this because I have now read countless threads discussing this very problem (many in your forum as well as several others). I believe I am too new to post in your forum so I am going right to the source, sorry.

    Currently, I am conflicted on how to deal with this problem. First I don't want to destroy any of his drive that I have been working very hard to continually build, or cause him to think he will be corrected for noticing/investigating his environment. On the other hand if I can prevent a problem I most definitely will. As I see it, I either do nothing or begin consistently correcting. I have no problem with either way but I don't want to correct a dog that does not need/deserve it, but I also don't want to bolster any OCD type behavior. He is a very large financial commitment (in addition to all of the time and love) so I am somewhat nervous about an obsessed dog for which there is no cure. Any thoughts would be well appreciated as my goal is to begin formal schutzhund training in next month (the clubs are very expensive).

    My Most Sincere Thanks,
Dan

    PS - I neglected to socialize the dog with flashlights until tonight (I like the dark and both of us got around fine so I never used them) and he responded well. He definitely paid close attention to the light and its direction but I could still keep him heeling as well and transfer his attention opposite to the light onto me. Hope this might help.

Accepted Answer

Interrupting obsessive behavior will have no affect on drive. Notice I didn't say CORRECT.

Interruption can be done in a variety of ways, with a tug on the leash, making a noise to distract him or a low level nick with the ecollar.

You basically want to stop the forward movement of the dog in relation to chasing shadows in any way you can. Dogs with high prey drive can learn that this is a really fun game and it can become an OC behavior very quickly.

I have found the easiest way to deal with this is with an ecollar. I have a dog that showed very strong tendencies to do this as a young puppy so I used the collar on him starting at around 4 months old. He will still very occasionally start to chase a shadow (mostly in the snow on a very sunny day) and a verbal No and a nick from the ecollar stop it right away.

Cindy