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Why Do Dog’s Have Tails For?
- FOR MAINTAINING BALANCE
- FOR GESTURING EMOTION
- AND FOR SPREADING SCENT(to attract other GENDER of same breed)
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Here are a few reasons dogs chase their tails.
- Boredom
- Oftentimes, dogs will chase their tails as they are bored also it’s a way for them to have fun and expend some energy.
- This is especially true for puppies, who may not even realize that their tail is actually a part of their body, but they see it as a toy.
- Attention
- Do you tend to watch and laugh when your dog starts chasing his tail? and if he is receiving positive attention from you by engaging in the act, it may cause him to do it whenever he wants you to take notice and play with him.
- Something’s Wrong
- Weather you have noticed your dog really going after the tail a lot and trying to nip at it and chew on it, you should schedule an appointment to the vet.
- Sometimes dogs will chase their tails because they are being bothered by worms or fleas or experiencing some other kind of medical issue.
- Genetics
- For reasons that we still don’t really understand, breeds like German shepherds and terriers tend to engage in tail-chasing more than other breeds even if they grow older.
- This happens even more when dogs have been trapped indoors for very long time.
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- Compulsion
- Some dogs may develop a compulsive disorder which involves chasing their tail offen.
- These kinds of behavioral problems comes for many reasons like confinement, physical abuse, past injury or trauma, separation anxiety, and so on which need to be addressed.
- Excessive Energy
- Boredom is often touted as a reason for tail chasing, however it’s usually not boredom but rather an inadequate level of physical activity that’s the cause.
- If your dog has a great need for aerobic or hardcore exercise and might engage in tail chasing to exert energy.
- If this is the case, the behavior should cease once activity levels increase.
- Injury
- If an animal receives an injury to the tail (such as being slammed in a door), he or she will often try to ease the discomfort by tail chasing.
- Other superficial conditions such as skin irritation or parasite bites (eg. fleas) may also cause this behaviour.
- Anxiety
- Tail chasing can also be the symptom of an underlying anxiety or psychological issue. The behaviour commonly begins with the dog chasing or scratching at the tail after an injury or irritation.
- As the behavior is comforting for the dog, it can quickly become a habitual response to all other threats, even after the tail has healed or the irritation has gone.
- In these instances, the dog is said to have become ‘conditioned’. While difficult to treat, this form of anxiety can be somewhat prevented if intercepted early enough.
- Medical Causes
- There are some other neurological conditions that can cause a dog to whirl or chase the tail.
- Whilst rare, severe tail chasing has been attributed to “epilepsy” and is sometimes described as a “seizure-related symptom”.
- Hormone Imbalance
- Any time there is an interruption in the flow or amount of hormones in an animal’s body, behavioral issues could arise. Bloodwork would help rule this out as a possibility.
- Discovering Their Body
- Dogs might chase their tails as part of a puppy phase. Just like human babies are constantly discovering different parts of their little bodies, puppies could be doing the very same thing.
- Maybe your puppy doesn’t know if that thing he periodically catches sight of back there is something following him around or not, so he has to check it out! Eventually, just like a human baby, he becomes familiar with it and leaves it alone, probably pretty quickly if he catches it and bites himself!
- If you don’t want your puppy to make it a bad habit, a good way to nip this behavior in the bud is to not give it attention from the very first. Don’t laugh when he chases his tail, and try to redirect him with a toy.
- Puppies and even older dogs will take all the attention they can get, and if you laugh at his behavior, he’ll keep it up. Then his habit of running in circles may get to be a real fixation!
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