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FrozenGate by Avery

why dogs chase laser beams






My cat loves chasing the red dot.
I make sure she realises that it's just a game by showing her the whole body of the pointer next to the dot on the floor and let her see how the light is made by me.
I am pretty certain she understands its a game
but just to satisfy her need to actually catch it i put an ordinary LED into a sft toy and switch it on then make her chase the dot to where her glowing red toy is
she likes that

whenever i click the button on the pointer she immediately puts her ears up and looks around for the red dot
I think pets understand its a game if you show them its a game
 
That is pretty cool you have taken to the next step by making the cat a toy with a LED in it, good on you man :d


netizen said:
My cat loves chasing the red dot.
I make sure she realises that it's just a game by showing her the whole body of the pointer next to the dot on the floor and let her see how the light is made by me.
I am pretty certain she understands its a game
but just to satisfy her need to actually catch it i put an ordinary LED into a sft toy and switch it on then make her chase the dot to where her glowing red toy is
she likes that

whenever i click the button on the pointer she immediately puts her ears up and looks around for the red dot
I think pets understand its a game if you show them its a game
Click to expand...
 
netizen said:
My cat loves chasing the red dot.
I make sure she realises that it's just a game by showing her the whole body of the pointer next to the dot on the floor and let her see how the light is made by me.
I am pretty certain she understands its a game
but just to satisfy her need to actually catch it i put an ordinary LED into a sft toy and switch it on then make her chase the dot to where her glowing red toy is
she likes that

whenever i click the button on the pointer she immediately puts her ears up and looks around for the red dot
I think pets understand its a game if you show them its a game
Click to expand...

Yea this is a good idea I've never seen before.:beer:
 
My dog does the same, as soon as I show him a laser pointer in my hand, he stands ready to charge at the dot, looking around for it.

The moment I turn the laser off, he'll look at me as in "Why'd you do that? I was having fun!"

I can't open that website for the moment. Can somebody give me a TL:DR version of why dogs would go nuts because of lasers?
 
I use the cheap red laser on the cats on the streets, one they see it, they run like crazy towards it.
I made a cat hit the wall once :eg:
But I stopped that, I am afraid that I would hit her in her eyes and hurt her even thought it weak
 
I have one dog that goes completely crazy for it. If you just pick up a laser, flashlight, or even some piece of tube he starts looking for it and running around. After you turn the laser off he will be looking for it for the next 10 minutes.

He has definitely figured out where the light comes from and that it's a game. Sometimes if you shine it somewhere he can't get it he will run over and bite the laser.

I don't agree with the article though, because I have another dog the runs and hides under a bed at the first sight of a laser dot or even turning on a flashlight. So this obviously isn't entirely true:
A laser beam's incessant movement keys into this predatory system. "They can't help themselves; they are obliged to chase it," Dodman told Life's Little Mysteries.
Click to expand...
 
Who would be stupid enough to use a high power laser with their pet?
 
Eudaimonium said:
My dog does the same, as soon as I show him a laser pointer in my hand, he stands ready to charge at the dot, looking around for it.

The moment I turn the laser off, he'll look at me as in "Why'd you do that? I was having fun!"

I can't open that website for the moment. Can somebody give me a TL:DR version of why dogs would go nuts because of lasers?
Click to expand...

The game certainly is part of it - if you pick up a tennis ball your dog will be looking where you are going to throw it if you play throw-and-retrieve games using such a ball often with that dog.

The article basically states that the need to chase a laser dot is hardwired into a dogs brain, and being unable to actually 'catch' the dot is frustrating to a dog. The fact that your dog gets ready for action when you pick up the laser but not activate it yet more or less proves that certainly is not the only explanation.

As for the frustration part: I reckon that turning off the laser as soon as the dog touches the spot would prevent that, fooling the dog into having killed (or scared off) whatever it was chasing in the first place.

I suppose dogs just like to play: most of them will retrieve a ball or a stick so you can throw it away again over and over again. Clearly this yields the dog no more then a compliment for retrieving it (and perhaps a treat when training), yet most of them seem perfectly happy doing it 100 times in a row while they have the option not to retrieve it - considering you never used negative reinforcement to train this behaviour.
 
Hm, it makes a good amount of sense.

But my dog is well acquanted to lasers since I bought him two and something years ago.

Hell, if anything, he's the opposite of nuts. Very tame, appears like he will never bite anybody.

The other day I was out on the playground with him, and some kids brought along their dog, tiny thing. Started barking at my, 10x larger dog, which playfully gave chase. Seeing kids being worried about their dog, I simply yelled my dog's name (loud yell, with authority), he instantly turned around, looked at me, forgot about the other dog, and sat down by me.

Later, he didn't even bother getting up when the small dog walked around eyeing him.

Not sure how much it helps to disprove the "being nuts" theory, but there's that. He's not trying to catch the small dog and rip it to pieces.
 
The bigger the dog, the less likely it will bite someone. Its usually the smaller dogs that bite people. The bigger the dog, usually the less aggressive.
 
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