[Castlemaid]

Yes, as gsdraven said, tail chasing (and laser chasing) can be an issue. If Timber has started chasing his tail, he may be one of those dogs that are more succeptible to OCD behaviours, so definitely no laser light!!!

Smart dogs need to exercise their brain too, physical exercise is often not enough. See if you can get him to obedience classes, start tracking lessons, or sign up for agility with him. Daily training sessions (keep it to like five minutes or so for his age - that's about their normal attention span).

Stimulate his brain by exposing him to new places and environments, shake up his routine, make him work for his food (puzzle toys, NILIF, etc).

Stop him from chasing his tail and distract him, re-direct to a toy or other activities.

 

[Castlemaid]

Recently there was a thread from a woman at Tufts U. asking for gsds with compulsive behaviors like tail chasing, to participate in a behavior study they're doing. You might want to look for it and participate. Apparently gsds have a higher incidence of tail chasing and the light thing than other breeds. Her name is Nicole Cottman if you want to look for it, but I agree- redirect him before it gets worse

Ugh, I worry about that! They are looking for a genetic marker for OCD behaviours - when I think that a lot of that is really a training and exercise issue.

How will they identify true OCD disfunction from the high drive/high energy dogs that redirect their frustration to tail/light chasing?

So now they will identify all these dogs with frustrated working drives that are bored and chasing their tail, say that they are "defective" and publish it as a medical defect for breeders to avoid those lines, and encourage more pet quality low-drive breeding.

UHG!!!