Hi Everyone.
Hope you are all ok.

I have a little issue with my dog chasing his tail. If it is just me and my partner in the room, he will lie down and relax, but as soon as other people enter the room and its a little noisier, he start to chase his tail. I have tried distraction with his toys, this can work for short periods of time before he goes back to chasing tail. Saying NO in a firm voice will stop him sometimes until you look away. Putting a prong collar on and giving a little correction works and he will then lie down and rest providing i leave the collar and lead attached. Any ideas would be appreciated, as i dont want to have to resort to the prong collar each time.
Many Thanks
Brian

Brian;
Sorry to butt in. I can't give you the behavioral reason why you're dog is doing this, but I don't think it's voluntary, so, IMHO, it's not fair to correct for it. Not only that, but using the prong the way you describe is certain to make the dog collar-wise (already heading in that direction, by your account-"providing i leave the collar and lead attached"), which creeps into his perception of other training tools as well. Be careful.

Others here have had problems with tail-chasing, and may offer help. In 35 years I've been lucky to not have had a compulsive tail chaser. I would think it would be environmental or behavioral.

I have seen dogs do this out of mental & physical bordom, as self amusment, usually with puppies, as an owner attention getter, while waiting to be fed, etc etc. It can be an 'outlet' for alot of reasons. It can become a very self gratifing behavior. It sounds like an attention getter behavior since it stops when he has your attention or doesn't start until you are busy with company....& you are feeding right into it. It is an easy behavior for a dog to become obsessive about. OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)is common in GSDs & other breeds. I don't know how long this has been going on...but the faster you stop it the better...before it does become obsessive if it hasn't already.

I would make sure that the dog is tired from physical & mental exercise before company comes over. As I do agress with Duane about being collar wise...it has been my experience with 4 high drvie GSDs, at least, that most dogs figure out what collar is on them over time, smart ones figure it out much faster, no matter how you may try to 'fool' them. With this kind of obsessive behavior in a high drive, smart breed dog, I'd be far more concerned about erradicating the behavior then worrying about how collar wise the dog is.

I'd try giving him a tasty bone or filled kong to keep his attention for a while when company comes over & see if that worked. Make it a treat that he ONLY gets when company is there...so it is special. I'd keep his time with the company short & then remove him to another room or his crate. If he can settle with the busy food, then slowly increase the time with company over time.

If that doesn't seem to work I'd just remove the dog from the stimulis that is causing the problem so as to not feed into the behavior. Crate him in another room. Correcting would be my last choice unless the behavior is so engrained or that you have a dog that will do this while crated etc just as a self-satisfying behavior. It can be a very difficult behavior to stop once it takes hold.

I would not recomend e-collar use to someone that is not experienced with one...but it is often the best method to stop obsessive behavior that has become well ingrained.

All JMO & experience in helping a few owners get their dogs past this bahavior. I am sure others have their thoughts & experience as well.

I wouldn't correct either; a secret OCB is worse because you don't know what's going on.

I'd really get on the suggestions asap, because as Anne says, this can turn really bad really quickly.

You were smart to ask.

I found these in a quick search .... didn't have time to check them out, but the titles look right:

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=32257&page=1#361056

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=29754&page=1

In case some folks don't understand what Connie means by a secret OCB means. This would be a dog that has been corrected for an OCB & learns to do it out of sight of the owner. Many dogs, especially smart high drive ones, figure out quickly that they can still do this self-gratifying behavior that way. And the owner thinks that they have 'cured' the problem of the behavior, becasue the dog no longer does it in front of them.

Thanks everyone for your advice, i will try to put things into place. He doesn't do it all the time, but it will occur at some point most days, usually in the evenings, when the family is in the house. If the kids are upstairs he is great, but when they come in he quite often starts. I tried getting the kids to go out when he started and he will stop straight away, they return and he will start again, get them to leave and he will stop. Maybe trying this over time the dog may realize his behaviour makes them leave and will stop??? bit of a pain for the kids though. either way i will persevere.

BTW his marker training is coming along nicely, today was especially good. Whilst training today (in house) walking to heel i said down and i carried on walking and he did it and didn't follow me (Brilliant) So we are making nice steps forward, with some issues, but thats the learning curve i suppose. Rome wasn't built in a day as the say. Or in my case a year so far. lol

Often with younger dogs & some high drive dogs...excessive stimulis is more then they can handle. Sounds like this might be part of the the case with your dog. He is just overstimulated by alot of people being around. Kids expecially can be over stimulating just becasue of the fast & often erratic movements that they make. The noise of alot of people in the room can also do it for some dogs.

As I had said before...it would be just better to remove him from the room to a quieter place. Maybe as he gets older & calmer & better able to settle in the house (not sure how old this dog is) this problem may improve.

Hi Anne
Thanks for the advice, he has just turned 1 year old.

how much exercise , physical and mental is this dog getting ?

i've seen this behaviour in all three of my BCs' . in all three it stopped in short order when they ( a ) found something better to do , and ( b ) were too tired to expend energy on something with no real value .

Hi Ian
He is currently getting about 1hr free running in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon on lead and 30 minutes in the evening on lead. He would normally be running on the fields in the evening, but it is dark from 5.30 at the moment. I do usually 2 or 3 short OB sessions per day, where i am now using markers. I plan on taking him to flyball, but the class is not taking rookies till May. I have just been looking at Treiball, so i am going to try to teach him to do this, providing he doesn't keep popping the balls, which is what he usually does. Hope this helps.
Thanks
Brian