Mark Derr has a new post up about the recent study on OCD in several breeds, which manifests itself as tail-chasing.
In the end, the research shows just how complex an issue OCD is in domestic dogs.
We don’t know how it is inherited, though there is likely some sort of genetic basis behind the tail-chasing behavior.
It’s another one of those issues in which the more we learn, the less we know.
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I recently read posted August 12, 2013 Science Daily states Dogs Resembles Obsessive Compulsive Disorders in Humans. The comparison in tail chasing?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/plants_animals/dogs/
I expect that at least in some cases its environmental. My youngest daughter has a Cocker she adopted from a puppy-farm rescue. The poor animal had been continuously caged for 6 years, bred the whole time (this despite the fact that he has several genetic disabilities). He’s come a long way but any stressor drives him into walking in clockwise circles. Interestingly, its my daughters cats that correct this behavior. Whenever they see him caught in this loop they stand in his path, effectively breaking up the pattern–they won’t move until he desists. Elsewise, they have nothing to do with him. They apparently recognize aberrant behavior and knowingly act to disrupt it.
They mention Dobermans and flank sucking in the article.. Kyuss is a flank sucker, but he chooses to suck his blanket instead. (Fell asleep right now doing so) Neither of his parents have the condition, nor does his littermate who I personally know.
Very interesting study indeed.
I wonder if some Border Collies’ wide circling behavior is stalking behavior modified by OCD. Just this weekend I was watching a BC do endless loops around its handler with periodic forays to retrieve a Frisbee. It would be easy for the OCD to be continually bred into them because wide circling is so valued in trial dogs and milder forms might be easier to miss in normal herding behavior.