Tail chasing compulsion?

[jrh258]

Hi all,
Sadie has started a new behaviour that I find a bit bizarre. To review, Sadie has had issues with food guarding as well as growling/snapping hen she is woken up. We've done well with the biting- no bites for a few months now. However, she has started doing something odd whenever she is asked to move (move over on the couch, for example). It used to be she was pretty good about moving over to make room for people, she would see me approach and just move on over. In the past few weeks, she's started growling when I approach her on the couch/bed wherever she may be, and then she chases her tail. She will chase her tail for a good 1-2 minutes (although sometimes she can chase it for 5-7 minutes), and then stop, look at me, and move over with no problem. So for the past week I have been approaching her, waiting for her to chase her tail and then move over, and then I sit down. I suppose the "easiest" solution would be to not let her up on the furniture (although she's been able to get on it for so long that actually wouldn't be very easy at all). However, I find this behavior so bizarre and it seemed to come out of nowhere. Then, in the past week, she has started doing it when I walk by her when she is eating. We have done well with the food guarding, but now with this new tail chasing behavior when I get close I've started feeding her in isolation again.When she started doing that I began to think it's a stress behaviour- she doesn't want to move (although she hasn't had problems with that before), she doesn't like people near her food (although we had been doing so well with that!) so she chases her tail. She gets pretty aggressive with her tail- growling at it, biting it...I'm afraid she may hurt herself. It does not seem like the "fun" kind of tail chasing- it was actually a bit scary the first few times she did it but now I'm used to it. I'm glad she's not biting me, but also not happy with this either! Does anyone have any insight into this? It's the oddest thing...I've looked online but can't find anything specific to this- tail chasing in response to very specific triggers.

[jrh258]

Addendum- I have read online that tail chasing can be the result of not enough exercise. Unfortunately, given where I live, there's not really a place where I can just let her out and run round totally free. However, between my dog walker and I, she gets walked 2.5 hours a day minimum, usually closer to 3.5. I also have a bunch of puzzle toys for her that she enjoys and I give her stuffed Kongs.

[ClareMarsh]

I'm hoping someone comes on with a brilliant insight and fix but in the mean time here's my thoughts

It sounds like she's getting enough exercise so my feeling would be it's stress but I'm no expert.

I'd try either make moving on across either a "job" or a game. So teach her "here" (come and stand where I point) and then reward her for standing where you want her to, do this off the sofa first then work up to doing it on the sofa once she understands. Don't sit down to start with, just practise, once it's well known then start sitting down.

Or invite her off the sofa for a quick game (nothing too exciting), maybe even just doing a few tricks, then sit down and invite her back up