Obsessed with other animals

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lizalex
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri May 05, 2017 1:51 am

Obsessed with other animals

Post by lizalex »

Hello
We have a new 7 year old male mini poodle. We adopted him from rescue mid March so have had him less than two months.
He came into rescue as a stray and was entire - however was castrated while in rescue.
On the whole he has settled in well, with some issues - including hyper-attachment to me - which we are working through and seeing slight improvement.
The other problem we have is that he seems obsessed with other animals - this causes a big problem with the tv.
If he sees or hears an animal on tv, he cries and runs up to the tv, his tail is wagging, but it clearly stresses him as it takes him a while to settle again afterwards. It doesn't matter if the sound is on or off, it seems to be the picture that sets him off most, although he does react to animal sounds too.
It can be any animal - from dogs to grizzly bears and elephants! The worse reaction came from sheep in Emmerdale.
Any suggestions how to deal with this? - as there are so many varied animals on tv, it is hard to avoid.
Thanks very much
emmabeth
Posts: 8894
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:24 pm
Location: West Midlands
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Re: Obsessed with other animals

Post by emmabeth »

Hi Lizalex,

Can you condition him to a clicker, so, sit there and click, give him a treat, click, treat over and over until when you click his face says 'treat?'... the other way is to throw a handful of treats on the floor and repeatedly click as he eats them.

Once he understands click = treat, then ONLY allow him to watch tv with you when you have the clicker and a big pot of treats - any time there is an animal, you click and treat and the idea is he soon starts to look to YOU for his reward rather than focus on and get wound up by the animal on the tv.

For management, outside of training sessions don't watch tv with him in the room - perhaps teach him that a crate is anice place to stay, and set one up with a blanket over it so he can't see the tv!
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
DianeLDL
Posts: 832
Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 4:16 pm
Location: Maine USA

Re: Obsessed with other animals

Post by DianeLDL »

Hi Lizalex,

We have a 7 yo deer chihuahua who we rescued 6 years ago.
He also goes bezerk when any animal gets on the TV: dog, cat, horse, duck... :shock:
You name it. We have tried treating him, but all he did was find treats in my pocket & have jackpot.

Our TV stand is totally scratched. :oops:
We have tried changing channel, but they use animals especially dogs to sell everything from dog food to cars to furniture. We have had to go through 3 channels. Here in Albuquerque we have cable so if we put the guide on, it just has guide. At our home in Maine they have a picture of the show in the corner. We have tried turning off the sound, but doesn't always work.

He is not allowed in the bedroom so we don't watch TV until the afternoon & watch in the bedroom. It's hard when we travel since we're in the same room.

Lately, though, some good news. We can only watch on demand in living room where Sandy is. So, he chooses to sit on a lap. (He divides his time between me & OH.) Here, even On Demand has ads. So, I hold him by the collar & cuddle him. If animal shows on screen, I saw "Good boy" & carry him into the kitchen & give him his favorite, high value chicken pices & praise him. Once animal is gone. We sit back down. This has been working for about a month now. Yeah! :D

When we know there are animals on the show itself, as Emmabeth suggested, we put him in his crate so he's looking at me, & put towel or blanket to cover the back. When we have forgotten to bring his crate into the room, I've run with him into the other room in the past. But, holding him even with his leash on, & running to the fridge to get his chicken has helped. And while running to get his treat I praise him for staying with "mommy" & let him know he's so good he's getting his yummy chicken.

We haven't been in a hotel or motel yet since this began working. So we will have to see how it goes when we travel end of June.

All I can say is it took us 6 years to figure out what works. And, we still watch most shows in bedroom in evening. OH goes to sleep very early in the evening (6pm) since he gets up at 1:30 or 2am. So, by then Sandy is ready to go to bed himself. He sleeps in the living room on what used to be my recliner, thanks to OH. (OH had to buy me new recliner :lol: )

So, Sandy doesn't miss being with us in evening. When I take him out to potty, he goes right back to bed.

So, I would suggest, keep changing channel & try the crate as suggested. But, I would try treating him with high value treats. Clicker didn't work for Sandy. But try it.
Just keep trying what you can, & have patience. Took us 6 years to figure this out with the high value chicken & it just an idea that popped in my head.
Personally, I believe these new TVs probably look like windows to them & I think Sandy thinks animal is in house. By the way, in the beginning when we turned off the TV he would look under & behind for the animal that had disappeared. That's why I thought he thinks the TV is window. :roll:

Good luck & try what you can. Hopefully something will work. And there are other dogs I know who react the same way including a toy poodle & a larger retriever mix.
Diane
Sandy, Chihuahua mix b. 12/20/09
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