I know a few of us have laser pointers we use for speaker alignment, I do. I discovered my dog just absolutely loves to chase it around, so I've played with her a couple of times and let her chase it around. Then I started noticing that she would keep looking up at the ceiling and started reacting to random reflections (sunlight bouncing of a watch face, phone or tablet) long after I would put it away. I haven't had it out for over 2 weeks and she still looks intently up at the ceiling when I open the console in my chair or if she sees a flash.
This is starting to freak me out a little bit so I googled. Turns out that the laser pointer game can
create severe mental problems for your pooch!
"
The movement of a laser pointer triggers a dog's prey drive, which means they want to chase it. It's an unending game with no closure for the dog since they can't ever catch that beam of light, like they can when chasing a toy or food.
Many dogs continue looking for the light beam after the laser pointer has been put away; this is confusing for your dog because the prey has simply disappeared. This can create obsessive compulsive behaviors like frantically looking around for the light, staring at the last location they saw the light, and becoming reactive to flashes of light (such as your watch face catching the sunlight and reflecting on the wall, or the glare of your tablet screen on the floor). Dogs that exhibit behavioral issues are frustrated, confused, and anxious."
Yeah, I had no idea and I love my dog to death. Fortunately I haven't played the pointer game much so she's not exhibiting any major issues
like this poor dog.
As soon as she started acting a little different I stopped using it. It was when I saw her look up at the ceiling today that I decided to Google it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who loves their dog and I wanted to pass this along. I would be absolutely gutted if my dog went off the deep end and we had to give her up.
