Tail Chasing and injury

Hi guys, I have a 5 month old bull terrier male. He started chasing his tail and cannot stop. He is injuring himself and it was suggested that the tail be amputated. Is there anyone with the same problems and how do you handle it? I need help, urgently!!!

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I haven't had that problem before. Have you tried either correcting him when he does it or distract him with a toy when he tries it?

Hi welcome to the forum.
I seen you posted this twice so I deleted the other one, just in case you were wondering were it had gone.

What normally starts the behaviour?
What sort of exercise does your dog get daily?

It seems to start when he sees me making ready to go to work, or if he cannot see me, not much exercise really

Honestly at 5 months old i would never even DREAM of amputating. This is a behavioural problem and 99% of behavioural problems can be sorted with training and exercise. How much is he getting? Is he crated a lot? When he is doing this what state is he in, calm or excited?

Sounds like it's probally a lack of exercise compouned by seperation aniexty. At 5 months he should be getting a minimum of two walks per day of 25 minutes each which will increase by 5 minutes for every month of age until he is walking at least 45 minutes at a time.

The lack of exercise could be increasing the nervous energy from seperation aniexty and causing him to chase his tail. I would try to take him for a good walk before he has to be left alone and see if that helps the situation.

dollaqie wrote:It seems to start when he sees me making ready to go to work, or if he cannot see me, not much exercise really

Why? Do you not have the time or what?

A dog needs at LEAST 30min walk 2 or 3 times a day, esp when they are younger.

It will be a form of separation anxiety. You will do something which will trigger his mind into knowing that you are going out for a length of time.

The best advice I can give you which will change his behaviour the most in the shortest time would be to get up an hour earlier and take your dog out on a good long walk before you go to work.

Missed he was only 5 months old. Not opened my eyes fully yet

Great advice from jstaff

I dont think that amputation is a solution. You do need to excercise your dog with energy draining activities on a daily basis. It is optimal to have at least 3 periods of a minimum of 45 minutes each. Walking is a good excercise for both of you.

I leave home at 05:30 in the morning for work and cannot take him for a walk that time, is there any other form of activity that I can practice in the morning before work. In the afternoon I get home at 14:00 and will then take him for a long walk

Unfortunately not. Anything else will just get him excited and worked up, which will make matters worse. Where is he during the day is he in a crate or has free run of the house? 30mins is all it would take in the morning.

He stays outside in the garden. Walking in the morning is not possible, I stay in JHB South Africa and if it was summer that would be a different story but it is still picth dark 05:00 in morning and not safe at all.

Do you have a friend or neighbor that could take him out for you. If not you could look into a dog walker.

Dog walker might be an idea. Im afraid the only way to sort this out is more exercise. Several walks a day are much better than one large walk.

It might sound that I do not want to take him for a walk in the morning, but here we do not have dog walkers and neighbours not interested in each other.

Harv used to chase his tail all the time as a pup but never injured it, he grew out of it very quickly though

Bull terriers are susceptible to OCD behaviours particularly tail chasing. Caryll knows a lot about this I expect she will be along soon. For now take a look at these articles.

http://dogs.about.com/cs/disableddogs/a/ocd.htm
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/canine-obsessive-compulsive-disorder-how-to-spot-it-and-how-to-treat-it-968477.html

I wouldn't recommend amputation, its not curing the problem just removing the result and the cause will still be there. He may just start doing something else obsessivley as sounds like it is linked to seperation anxiety as others have said.

dollaqie wrote:It might sound that I do not want to take him for a walk in the morning, but here we do not have dog walkers and neighbours not interested in each other.

I dont know where in JHB you are but I also live here and dog walkers are ten apenny. Take a look on your local Spar notice board. If walking in the morning is impossible try leaving him with activities that will engage his mind. For example a cong stuffed with treats. You can also cut holes in a 2ltre plastic drink bottle and put his breakfast in it. he could spend a few hours trying to get the food out. A car or motor cycle tyre is also a source of amusement.

ella wrote:Harv used to chase his tail all the time as a pup but never injured it, he grew out of it very quickly though

Hi Ella, when did he stop chasing his tail on what age?

A dog will use his tail in many ways. One will be to read another dogs body language and if the tail is not there signals can be missread and messages get confused. This can then cause problems with aggresion because the wrong signal has been given/received.

Another use of the dog tail is balance for when he is running and control.

Rocky has a kink in his tail but we would not consider having it removed unless it was casuing him pain.

dollaqie, i don't mean to presume anything but i know Ella and i know that she exercises her dogs a lot. I don't believe you can just "wait this out"

Hayley, I am not waiting this out, we did go for a walk yesterday afternoon, as this was the first time ever for him to walk on a leach it did not went that well and he was very anxcious after we came home and started to chase his tail even more. We will go again this afternoon and I take all the advice everybody has given here and tried to practice it towards him.

Well just a lot more work and training. At 5 months a lot of dogs walk on a lead, your's just needs to catch up.

dollaqie wrote:Hayley, I am not waiting this out, we did go for a walk yesterday afternoon, as this was the first time ever for him to walk on a leach it did not went that well and he was very anxcious after we came home and started to chase his tail even more. We will go again this afternoon and I take all the advice everybody has given here and tried to practice it towards him.

Please persevere with the walking. It will take time and a lot of patience on your part but it will be well worth the effort as you will reap the rewards of a happy dog. You also need to be calm when working with him as your energy may increase his anxiousness. When he chased his tail when you got home, did you try and distract him with other activities?

Hi & welcome. I also have an EBT, but he's 3 years old, now.

EBTs are known to suffer from OCD, and that is what your dog is experiencing & it must be stopped asap before it becomes life-threatening. Not just damage to his tail! OCD tail chasing (and/or spinning) will overtake everything else if you allow it to go on. Amputating his tail won't stop it - if you do that he'll likely just start spinning & that's even harder to stop.

dollaqie wrote:Hayley, I am not waiting this out, we did go for a walk yesterday afternoon, as this was the first time ever for him to walk on a leach it did not went that well and he was very anxcious after we came home and started to chase his tail even more. We will go again this afternoon and I take all the advice everybody has given here and tried to practice it towards him.

This is going to sound harsh, but I hope you take it the right way - you have done your dog a great diservice by not exercising him properly. Has he never had regular walks? At 5 months old he should be walked at least twice daily (preferably three times) for at least 25-30 minutes each walk with some off lead running & playing during those walks. He is going crazy. Literally. He's bored, frustrated and sounds like he has seperation anxiety to go with it (you say it's mainly when you've been out).

I am not an expert on OCD, but I can point you to a forum that will have several people that know what you should do. However, they will also tell you that your dog needs regular exercise & that not to do so is, quite frankly, cruel. The forum I mean is this.........
I hope you've read this far & that you've taken the above as me trying to help you rather than overly criticize you. You must act now, or you could end up having an insane dog that may need to be pts.

dollaqie wrote:

ella wrote:Harv used to chase his tail all the time as a pup but never injured it, he grew out of it very quickly though

Hi Ella, when did he stop chasing his tail on what age?

He would have been about 7 months old when he 'grew' out of it and has only done a handful of times since

ella wrote:

dollaqie wrote:

ella wrote:Harv used to chase his tail all the time as a pup but never injured it, he grew out of it very quickly though

Hi Ella, when did he stop chasing his tail on what age?

He would have been about 7 months old when he 'grew' out of it and has only done a handful of times since

Unfortunately, Ella, there's a difference. EBTs are notorious for OCD tail chasing & spinning, both of which can lead to very severe mental & physical problems. He will not grow out of it, as it's anxiety based & has become a mental problem rather than a physical problem.

Zeus chases his tail and spins almost everyday, but nowhere near the point of injury. He stops when he gets hold of it and he does get his required walks daily. I thought this was just him mucking around? I didnt realise it was actually an issue that has to be stopped?

regarding Zeus above I would be trying to distract him now while he is young..as you can see it can develop into a really bad habit..
Winston chased his tail alot when he was younger , he has such a long tail, but we always distracted him or made a noise..anything to break that train of thought, and now he rarely ever chases it. If I were you I would try to nip it in the bud now.

vanessa wrote:

regarding Zeus above I would be trying to distract him now while he is young..as you can see it can develop into a really bad habit..
Winston chased his tail alot when he was younger , he has such a long tail, but we always distracted him or made a noise..anything to break that train of thought, and now he rarely ever chases it. If I were you I would try to nip it in the bud now.

Ok, thanks for the advice Vanessa, will get right on it!

Caryll wrote:

ella wrote:

dollaqie wrote:

ella wrote:Harv used to chase his tail all the time as a pup but never injured it, he grew out of it very quickly though

Hi Ella, when did he stop chasing his tail on what age?

He would have been about 7 months old when he 'grew' out of it and has only done a handful of times since

Unfortunately, Ella, there's a difference. EBTs are notorious for OCD tail chasing & spinning, both of which can lead to very severe mental & physical problems. He will not grow out of it, as it's anxiety based & has become a mental problem rather than a physical problem.

Yer i no they are was just well stating a point

It does certainly need addressing and now, amputating the tail will make no difference and you need to correct his behaviour