# obsessive shadow & Reflection stalking



## kmjeffus (Feb 4, 2016)

Help! Our 7 month old female V (Evie) stalks the reflections and mid-day shadows throughout our home. We have windows all across the front of our house (along with our front door being 1/2 window) and she has obsessively started pacing back and forth, pointing at, whining (non-stop), barking at and stalking any movement caused by the sun coming in our windows and the shadows it causes. It is awful when the wind is blowing, or if someone walks past the windows - or even if an iPad screen reflects sunlight onto the ceiling. She did pirouettes for 3 hours one day in the middle of the room, trying to catch the reflection on the ceiling. Yesterday the sun was very bright and every time we would open the door to let her out, she would go ballistic. Now she's scared to death to go out the front door - I literally have to push her out from behind. Once she's on the porch, she's fine. One night last week, I stood out in the yard at midnight trying to get her in the house because she was trying to attack her own shadow - everytime I got close to her, she would dart away at full-speed and back around to the shadow. When she couldn't find it, she started barking. Anyway, she is the sweetest, most loving puppy... we got through the very trying first 4 months (which I think nearly caused a divorce  ), she was getting to be wonderful, and now we are dealing with this. It is driving all of us crazy. She is perfect in the mornings and at night - but from 12-5, she is non-stop. Does anyone else experience this or have any remedies? I take her on long daily walks, we play fetch with her and have close to an acre for her to run - so she is getting a good amount of exercise. Thanks!!


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## lilyloo (Jun 20, 2012)

Ruby started doing similar things around your girl's age, although not as severe. What we did was cover up all the windows for a few days to get her out of the habit. Also, whenever she should show interest we would firmly say "leave it!" and re-direct her attention. 
She will still occasionally chase reflections from phone screens or jewelry, but nothing severe at all. Hope this helps!


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## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

Lily is giving good advice here about minimizing shadows. But, your girl sounds like she might need some medication, call the vet.

Once they get spooked the treatment is for them to re experience the spook without the panic reaction, and at first gentle redirection and a minimization of the stimuli works. But when it gets really bad and is interfering this way, you need to calm them internally with meds. 

Call the vet.


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## jld640 (Sep 29, 2010)

And ensure there are no flashlights or laser toys around her - even if they are used to entertain a cat.


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## kmjeffus (Feb 4, 2016)

Unfortunately, a flashlight is how this all started. We were having an invisible fence installed and were going through the training sessions. Evie was going berserk when the trainer was here (you know how Vizslas are when new people come around...) and was tinkling everywhere on the floors. The trainer pulled out a flashlight and started moving it around to see if it would distract and calm her down. This is our first V, so I didn't know to stop her. Well, it calmed Evie down in the sense that she stopped peeing and jumping (she was 20 wks at this point), but now I have a neurotic puppy that is constantly "on guard" looking for reflections on the walls and ceilings. When she gets in "the zone" there is nothing you can do to break her focus on it. I am going to call the vet on Monday but also try some mental exercise, along with some of the hide and treat puzzle games and see if that helps. She's getting a lot of physical exercise, but after reading some of the other posts on here, I'm wondering if I'm doing enough in the mental area... bored perhaps??


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## kmjeffus (Feb 4, 2016)

I DID know about no lasers. Our breeder warned me of those when we got her.


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## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

Your invisible fence guy is an absolute idiot and completely unqualified to do any training, even for the fence. But his intervention with the flashlight didn't cause this issue, it only brought it out.

Vizslas are very sensitive and very aware, and maybe yours more so. Seeing the flashlight just fed into that, and now, seeing the shadows does, too. It's about her temperament, not the lights.

At this point I think two things need to happen: 1) You should try to minimize shadows and reward her for being able to take small steps to master her anxiety, be very patient..and 2) Call the vet and get her on some meds. This is a temporary treatment that will desensitize her by decoupling her emotional response from whatever it is that's spooking her. By being in previously scary situations without the terrified response, she'll come back.


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## kmjeffus (Feb 4, 2016)

This is so frustrating as I have really tried so hard to do everything the correct way with her- knowing their sensitivity. She has insane prey drive, so We went through reward based clicker training and she did great, had her crate trained and house broken within 2 weeks of getting her. She does great on a leash (except when a squirrel crosses her path). She went through that wild stage around 4-5 months, but now she is an absolute angel and is so very loving. She sits at my feet and We "talk" to each other while I cook dinner at night. My husband makes fun of me because I know exactly what all of her different sounds mean  anyway, thank you for your advice. I will definitely contact the vet Monday and work on trying to solve this little issue...


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