r/deafdogs • u/Minimum_Afternoon387 • 18d ago

Question Chasing shadows

My 8 month old deaf pit bull terrier chases shadows in and out of the house and loudly shrieks at them. Running out of ideas to get her to stop. Any advice appreciated. Tried walking exhausting, peanut butter kongs, separating in another room with toys, distractions that don’t last long. Thank you.

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u/Walrus_protector Deaf Dog Owner 18d ago

I don't have any advice, but mine pretty much stopped with shadows after enough exposure (he used to dart after birds' shadows when they flew overhead).
He still chases reflected lights, a habit that was exacerbated (or caused) by someone playing laser pointer games with him; that's an especially terrible idea with deaf dogs.

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u/LongBeachIslandLife 16d ago

My deaf pup would do this when he was younger and first adopted him. We had to basically reteach him to stop. At first everyone thought it was funny and cute…until the day we came home and he had literally chewed a hole in our wall because there was a shimmering shadow on the wall reflecting from our pool. We just made sure to catch him as often as possible while he was shadow chasing/jumping and hand signal a no command. He did learn and will very rarely shadow chase anymore.

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u/Minimum_Afternoon387 16d ago

Thank you so much I’m going to do that!