Pets with compulsive disorders? You betcha

Kim Campbell Thornton • E-mail

Last summer, Mozart nibbled his foreleg fur down to the bare skin. The 13-year-old schipperke often licks the fur off his front legs and sometimes chews at his hind legs — behaviors that baffle his owner, Melanie Coronetz of New York City.

“He can’t be bored,” Coronetz says. “I have two other dogs and he lives a life of luxury, plus he gets plenty of love.”

A trip to the veterinarian revealed no skin-related disorders. Mozart is simply a little neurotic, his veterinarian concluded.

Licking, chewing, spinning, tail-chasing and running after shadows or beams of light can be normal behaviors in dogs and cats, but in some cases they become repetitive and harmful, stressing not only the dogs or cats involved but also the people who live with them.

Lexiann Grant of Little Hocking, Ohio, says she sometimes wonders whether 10 a.m. is too early to add a slug of chocolate liqueur to her coffee as her 14-year-old Norwegian elkhound, Wylie, paws incessantly at the tile floor.

“Being around someone, even a dog, engaged in compulsive behavior gets to you eventually,” Grant says. “At first you tune it out, but then it goes on and on like Chinese water torture and it shatters your calm. It impacts everyone. The other animals clear out of his way when he starts the pawing.”

How to help a compulsive pet If your pet is exhibiting behavior that seems obsessive-compulsive in nature, try these steps: — Make sure a treatable medical condition isn’t causing the behavior. — Restrict access to problem areas. For example, if you have a wool-eating cat, cat-proof your home with great care. If you have a dog that chases shadows or light, don’t encourage the behavior with a laser toy or flashlight play. — Be sure your pet is getting enough exercise and mental stimulation. This is especially true for animals that were bred to do an active job, such as herding. — Be consistent about redirecting the animal away from the compulsive behavior whenever you see it happening, but don’t punish the animal. — Try low-tech solutions, such as a lampshade collar for a forearm-licking dog. Make the dog wear the collar until its sore heals completely. — Consider consulting a veterinary behaviorist about the problem. — Be open to the idea of trying anti-anxiety medications.

When normal behaviors become repetitive or sustained and don’t seem to make any sense, a dog or cat is often diagnosed with compulsive disorder. Common repetitive behaviors in dogs include licking to the point of causing a wound known as a lick granuloma, tail-chasing or spinning to the point of exhaustion, and chasing shadows or light rays. Cats are known to suck on wool, groom excessively or chase their tails.

These behaviors can become so extreme that they affect the animal’s well-being, says veterinary behaviorist Amy Marder, director of the Center for Shelter Dogs at the Animal Rescue League of Boston. Some dogs become so focused on the behavior that they stop eating. Cats that chew or suck on wool and other fabric can move on to swallowing it, causing dangerous obstructions.

How problems begin
Emotional conflicts, stress, genetics, medical conditions and a pet’s environment can lie at the root of compulsive behaviors — but sometimes, as in Mozart’s case, the cause is unknown, perhaps triggered by a situation that went unnoticed at the time.

“The longer it goes on, the more disassociated it becomes with an actual trigger,” says Karen Sueda, a veterinary behaviorist who practices at VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital. “There’s a theory out there too that besides genetic or anxiety components that sometimes there is an endorphin release that might occur when animals engage in these types of repetitive behaviors that makes it almost self-rewarding to engage in it. We’re never 100 percent sure how much of it is going to be a genetic component versus learned versus anxiety versus a self-rewarding behavior.”

In other cases, described as conflict situations, animals face circumstances in which they have difficulty choosing between two different types of behaviors or don’t feel as if they have an acceptable course of action, says Lore I. Haug, a veterinary behaviorist at Texas Veterinary Behavior Services in Sugar Land, Texas. For instance, the owner might call the dog, but the dog can tell the owner is angry, so it’s partly motivated to come but also afraid to come at the same time. At moments like this the dog may short-circuit and perform a “displacement” behavior, such as spinning.

A pet’s environment also can be a factor, Haug says.

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“Too much confinement, not enough physical and mental stimulation, not enough access or ability to engage in normal behaviors for that species — we do see some of those factors play a role,” she says.

Repetitive behaviors can have a genetic basis as well, Haug notes. German shepherds and bull terriers are known for tail-chasing. Herding breeds such as the Belgian Malinois and the border collie have a tendency to chase light and shadows. Dobermans can develop a condition called flank sucking in which they turn around and grab a fold of skin on their side and suck on it.

“That’s not really something seen in any other breed, so we know there are genetic predispositions or sensitivities to that,” Haug says. “You see certain ones in certain breeds, and you can also see the behavior show up more frequently in certain families of dogs. When we look at wool sucking in cats, it’s more likely to show up in Siamese and some of the related Oriental breeds. We see it more frequently in those cats than other breeds or mixes of cats.”

Wylie, the Norwegian elkhound who paws tile floors, is an example of a dog whose repetitive behavior is related to a medical condition. He’s been diagnosed with systemic laryngeal paralysis, a neurological disease that’s often seen in elkhounds.

Spinal and neurologic diseases can trigger repetitive or seemingly compulsive behaviors because of changes in sensation in the animal’s limbs, Haug says. It might be a pins-and-needles feeling or a sensation of constant itching that makes the animal want to attack the area.

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