Dog Addicted to TV

If anyone but you had posted this Mic......
 
The best I can think of is don't let the dog watch TV?
 
Did you not get the forward I sent you seeking help?

No I didn't get any forwards from you.  What can I do for you?
 
Unfortunately, not letting the dog watch TV would mean not having one on in the house at all.  If he is in his crate, anywhere in the house, he goes nuts. 
 
Last night he was on the far side of the back yard, and I flipped the TV on and he came flying inside. 
 
It is intense to watch.

Mic-I don't know if you like him or not but Ceasar Milan had a case like that on his show. 
 
He wouldn't let the dog in the room until he was calm submissive and then slowly he let him closer and closer to the TV, anytime he was getting to excited, out of the room he had to go until he calmed down again.  They kept repeating until he could be in the room with the TV and just calm down when told if he started to whine.
 

I rewatched that case this morning, because it is the only one I have ever seen that is similar.
 
The owners of this dog aren't going to let me use any corrections on this Westie.  Cesar was able to gain the control via some of screen training that involved some mild corrections.
 
I have to find so +R way to deal with it.

I tried treats, commands, toys, other dogs in the house....it doesn't affect him. Nothing breaks his focus!

 
That describes Willow perfectly, please let me know what ends up working.

The owners of this dog aren't going to let me use any corrections on this Westie.

 
I'm not a trainer and I don't have any solutions for you, but if the owners aren't going to let you use any corrections, why did they hire you?

That's a tough one Mic, I too saw the Shar Pei w/ Ceasar, an I fell in love w/ that dog if I were Milan I would use that as my commercial.
I thought it was hysterical because it's not my dog, and you are 100% correct you can't not let him watch tv w/ the rest of the family either. AArrggh.

What about purely animal sounds - would the dog react the same way to a tape recording of animal sounds from stereo speakers, or must it be coupled with the visual stimulus of the TV? Or what happens when animals are on TV but you mute it? Perhaps I am mistaken, but I was under the impression that dogs' vision is actually variable among breeds, and that viewing a television (as humans see it) can be more or less problematic for certain breeds (don't know about Westie's?).
 
Do the owners have any idea how/when this issue may have started? Very interesting...

Mic, I have a thread in Behavior entitled Shadow is driving me nuts...and yes, he still is.

Wow, now that's one I've never heard of.  Anyway they can just not allow the dog in the tv room(gating it off). Or maybe setting up the tv so the dog cannot physically see the screen(like putting a board to block the dogs vision)?  I know its avoiding "fixing" the problem.  But it sounds like there's nothing in the world better than watching tv to this dog.  So positive reinforcement is going to be tough.

This is something that we see an awful lot with pet BCs.  Some get crazed about the flickering lights.  In some cases you will hear of a dog that fixates on some particular thing - dogs, men with hats, sheep, racing cars - I had one here once that would try to destroy the back of the tv when he saw wheels of any kind or heard car noises.  I have a friend who has a dog that goes bananas when she hears applause - she'll tear up the tv and/or anything in between her and the tv when there's cheering and clapping.  Another friend's dog has actually destroyed a tv because he'd try to get to water when he heard or saw it on the tv.

I think BC owners sort of take this nonsense as coming with the territory so it's rarely cause for alarm or intervention.  BCs that I saw in rescue with weirdo stuff like this were invariably there for other reasons - since they were mostly older they were usually "owner moved away" type cases.  Dogs like this were also almost invariably well-adjusted in other ways and came from very happy homes.  They may have been just a hint underworked and overfed, but not significantly so, as you noted with this Westie.  It's usually seen in highly prey driven dogs that away from the stimuli are particularly driven to chase squirrels or birds, or are highly toy-driven, or are exceptional mousers.

I was just starting in BC rescue when Dr. Nicholas Dodman was doing his research on OCD type behavioral problems and seizure disorders.  We sent him several subjects (boarded with local network foster homes and subsequently rehomed) and he had some good success treating with seizure meds and antidepressants.  He's 100% positive in his behavioral modification techniques, as well.  His approach usually involved putting the dog on a lower protein diet or an all natural diet (he likes raw feeding), and then behavioral modiication techniques combined with the meds.

This project has been long over, but contacting Dr. Dodman's office at Tufts may yield a local reference for you to work with someone who specializes in OCD behavior.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the great thoughts.  I do need to determine more specifically what the stimulus is (sound, color, light etc.)
 
I have considered medicating the dog as Dodman has done for years.  I prefer to use the meds as a last resort, but we may very well end up there. 
 
Do you have a reference for Dodman's work in reference to protein levels in dog food?
 
Thanks again.

Low-protein to reduce their energy level?
I wonder what you can find on [linkhttp://vet.tufts.edu/]http://vet.tufts.edu/[/link]
 

Does the dog react to the noise if there is no picture? 
 
If you can only use +R, can you make the tv less exciting to the dog?  How does the dog react to b/w tv?  (Are those still available even?)  Does the dog still react if the picture is so dark it is barely visable?  What if it is so light it is barely visable?  I'd think if you can figure some of this out, you could desensitize him.  Of course that's just me doing some outloud thinking and some back seat training.  []  good luck