Dog suddenly becoming obsessed with staring at her own reflection

What a timely misery loves company thread! I am dealing with these exact kind of reactive, repetitive ocd type behaviors with Benson. First were the mirrored closet sliding doors, which he had seen every single day since arriving here. One night he sees the reflection, barks at himself, then runs down the hall and into the living room (the "back" of the mirror). Runs back, sees himself and off he goes again. I am laughing so hard I'm crying. 30 min later I'm not laughing any more. I couldn't call him off. Thankfully I had two poster boards that fit perfectly on the mirrored doors. Taped them up. That stopped it. Then he started barking at himself in the French doors. I was able to distract him from that. He also chases his shadow up and down the fence walls outside.
The difference between Sparkle and Benson though seems to be intent. Benson seems to only do this when he is bored and has energy to expel. He is perfectly capable of walking past the mirror and not reacting. Along the same line, he was running the fence line yesterday during a one of our rare cloudy days and there was no shadow. I am praying it will be something that eliminates itself as he grows older. Sadly my yard isn't nearly the area he was free to run at the breeders, and Fillion isn't able to keep up with his puppy energy.
 
My childhood Sheltie has a thing for mirrors. The mirrored closet doors had doggie smudge marks all over them! Gavin has never shown an interest. Go figure...
 
Cindy said:
I did something similar when the neighbor directly underneath my apartment complained about Gavin barking at maintenance people he would see from the sliding glass doors working around my place. It worked really well. When someone broke into their apartment and stole a TV, Gavin didn't bark.
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Served them right for complaining about a barking Sheltie!
 
Thing is, Gavin has never been very barky. I mean, he barks at things, but he doesn't bark for huge lengths of time. No one else has ever complained about him. He used to sit out on my balcony overlooking the parking area and just watch people (very rarely barking...just chillin out). I think the guy was trying to get me to let him walk Gavin as he wanted a dog. Sad thing is, they adopted a dog right after the breakin but he was returned when the guy was deported (the GF was a nurse or doctor and not home much).
 
Caro said:
It could be that she's become aware of her reflection, although I vaguely thought my own dogs were younger when they became aware of their reflection.

It could also be an OCD behaviour, in which case you should nip it in the bud immediately. I've seen this type of OCD behaviour in Cattle dogs - fixated on reflections and shadows, and I recall Victoria Stillwell did an episode on it. My friend with the shadow-fixated ACD had to divert her dog whenever she saw a shadow (you can imagine that was a lot), and when we did flyball we'd position ourselves to cover the shadows until the dog was released and then once the dog was running she was fine. Sometimes it's anxiety related, so maybe she's anxious about hormonal changes, but whatever the cause it's too easy to turn into a habituated response.

If it is OCD there's no point trying to treat it away. I'd cover up the lower part of the French door so she can't see any reflections. If she still tries to lick the door when she can't see the reflection then you could try a redirect - throw really good smelling food in the other direction or have a play with her. But definitely stop it now.

Btw - is she licking anything else? She could have hay fever.
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Covering the bottom part of the door is imperative! Luna (10 months old)was becoming fixated with everything that moved outside my glass door or any windows. She would stand and stare and then suddenly go into a barking fit and dash around from door to window and back again for no apparent reason. I got some temporary glass film and covered everything so she can't see out and the problem resolved almost immediately. Shelties are inclined to become obsessive and it is important to deal with it as soon as possible.
 
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