Does your Cavalier have OCD?

Bella is not an overly yappy dog. I thought she barked quite a bit until I looked after a friends dog who didn't stop. One thing that Bella barks at is things she doesn't understand (like a plastic bag moving by itself in the wind) or if I don't put things back where they should go. We have a poop scooper at home and she knows what it is, my parents bought a new one like ours and when she saw it on the decking out the back she barked at it for ages. If I do not put the vacuum away she will bark at it. One day at my parents house one of the cushions on the lounge was sitting up instead of flat.....I joke with my parents that she is a little OCD, do any of your dogs do this type of thing? She doesn't do it constantly....just when she believes all is not how it should be and wants to let you know...if I leave my shoes in a different spot she is fine.

That's funny. She's just "helping" you keep the house neat.

More often the OCD things are more repetitive behaviours like fly catching or tail chasing -- but it sure sounds like she has a definite opinion on how things should be placed or put away! :lol:

Alana, our Dog Buster who left us last year was exactly the same, anything out of place or different he would bark at, he never chased his tail or anything like that.

Guinness is an expert mosquito catcher. I worry about the obsessiveness, but the mosquitoes are unavoidable here.

Jessie has a few quirky routines, as we call them. As his diet is both wet and dry foods, as soon as I put down his snack bowl of the dry, he rubs his face in his bowl, every time without fail. He then tries to rub his entire body in this tiny bowl, being so big, he looks more like a baby hippo thrashing himself about. Clearly it's not working, so he'll gather a mouthful, drop it on the floor, and roll around on top of it. He's a very lazy eater, and will do it with anything firm, biscuits, pieces of smoked kangaroo, he's trying to break them into tiny pieces so he doesn't have to chew them.

His other strange trait is with his favourite toy, a stuffed monkey and his bed. Everyday, he takes his monkey on a tour of the loungeroom with it in his mouth, then onto his big bed in the lounge and, with the monkey still in his mouth, on his tippy toes, will walk around on the very outer of his bed, flattening it out. He never sleeps or even lays on the bed and only does it when he's carrying his monkey.

Ha! Jesse you funny pup! You need to take a video! I want to see!

Yes Alana! Chloe and I regularly go on a walk in a park with a wooded trail. The trail takes us about 15 minutes to complete. Well - week or two ago, on the last leg of the trail, there was a log sitting on part of the path that had never been there before. Chloe stopped in her tracks and would not follow me to walk past it. I had to pick her up. She was afraid of it! The next day we walked the path again and the log was still there and she stopped. I encouraged her to walk around it, and she did - very hesitantly. I let her pause and look at it a bit (from a distance).

I didn't think anything of it until you started this thread. Chloe definitely notices when something is different too!

Lola always has to 'attack' anything that shes eating. She basically plays a game with it, batting at it with her paw, then leaping on it before eating it. She also point blank refuses to eat anything in her bed, or in the utility room that is her 'room', if you give her a treat and go out, when you come back, the treat will be on the floor uneaten, but then she'll pick it up and eat it when shes out of her 'room' haha! She also would prefer to eat any treats in the lounge, and will stand at the kitchen door, treat in mouth looking from me to the door and will eventually hit the door with her paw to let you know she wants a comfy chair before she indulges! Hilarious! I've never known a dog to have such self restraint when it comes to treats like Lola does!

She has her own eating space that isn't the eating space, haha! Bella has a "mat" that she is SUPPOSED to eat on, as soon as we aren't looking she moves off it and then I say "ON YOUR MAT" and she goes back. Cheeky pup.

Calandra that is precious! It's like "THAT DOESN'T BELONG THERE WOOF!"

Charlie doesn't surervise whether I put belongings back where they belong (maybe he should--laugh, laugh) what he does though is constangly lick the patio doors. Whether it's OCD or not I don't know. It is messy.

Oliver (as always!) takes everything in his stride, but Aled is rather wary if things are moved, or change colour. My theory is that because he grew up on a puppy farm and for the first 18 months of his life probably saw very little else except the four walls of his kennel and perhaps an occasional outing to an outside run to perform (he goes regular as clockwork morning, lunchtime and night and hardly ever at other times), everything was pretty strange to him when he was rescued and he's had to take a lot in. So something familiar that is out of place, or a dish that is a different colour, initially throws him: Is this something new I have to learn about? He's OK with it after a little while and some reassurance - though he has never got used to plastic bags, which not only change position and colour but also move and rustle! I think the answer is to introduce your dog to as many different things and situations as possible in a reassuring way, and perhaps deliberately change things from time to time at home, again being reassuring about it.

Kate, Oliver and Aled

I have another one! We have an under cover area out the back with pavers and the grass boarders the pavers. We also have large square stepping stones that make a path to the clothes line. When Bella goes potty she will not go from the pavers to the grass, she jumps to the first and then the second stepping stone, then goes onto the grass to potty. If I am carrying her and put her on the grass, she back tracks to the pavers, goes to the stepping stones and does the same thing!

Alana said:

I have another one! We have an under cover area out the back with pavers and the grass boarders the pavers. We also have large square stepping stones that make a path to the clothes line. When Bella goes potty she will not go from the pavers to the grass, she jumps to the first and then the second stepping stone, then goes onto the grass to potty. If I am carrying her and put her on the grass, she back tracks to the pavers, goes to the stepping stones and does the same thing!

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That is adorable! You have to film it for us to see, I can imagine her skipping about like a little spring lamb!

My Alfie barks at random things. He barks at balloons, sometimes teddies, garden ornaments and if someone was to put there scarf over there face he barks at that too. Hellum balloons are the worst thing. He goes bonkers. Alfie has an annoying habit of shadow chasing too. Anything like a watch reflecting on the wall, he will run up the back of the sofa to get to it. He also gets excited and jumps at the door handles. I think its a cavalier thing maybe. x

Bring on the video's! I will try to get one of Bella.