Re: obsessive behaviour

In Reply to: obsessive behaviour
Category:   Behavior Problems
Posted by:  Lisa
Posted on:  November 21, 2002 at 16:05:00

: I wrote a few months back about "hunting instinct" kicking in as my baby saw a cat in a front garden ONCE and has to now look in every front garden. He is still doing this even though he has not seen a cat there since. How long a memory have they got!. Now because he saw a fox at the bottom of our communial garden whenever I let him out he has to run to the end of the garden first to see if the fox is still there before he will get on with the task in hand "Peeing before bedtime". He is driving me mad with his obsessions. You would think after a few weeks of the cat and fox not being where they were before he would get bored with the idea.

Response:

Dear Lisa,

This is not obsession, this is instinct. Your terrier doesn't actually have to see it's prey to track it; scent alone is more then enough incentive to investigate. I assure you the cat and the fox have visited the gardens more then once since your terrier saw first saw them.

A sure way to get him to focus on what you expect him to do when you expect him to do it is to keep him on a leash. Letting him check out the gardens after he's taken care of business then becomes your choice, not his. :-)