Do Not Use Laser Pointers With Dogs. Part 1

I’m on a mission with hope that my experience might help others and our precious pets.  This is an 8-part multi-part series.  I’m going into great detail because what happened put me on an unexpected journey.  Some of you might have experienced that journey, or are currently experiencing it.  Hopefully, you have not encountered that journey and the information in this series will help you, or someone you know to avoid it.

I want to also share how you can take an active part to prevent unknowing pet owners, and dogs and cats, from being brutally injured by a product that commits animal cruelty under the marketing deception that it’s a toy.

Additionally, I’m asking for your help to save dogs and cats by pursuing warning labels on laser pointer packaging.   It would be nice if sellers of laser pointers as toys for pets would voluntarily discontinue selling them, however, based on my experience with Petco, it’s humanly impossible to reach decisions makers.

In this series,  I’ll give you resources to articles and videos regarding laser pointers causing dogs obsessive, compulsive, disorder, (OCD).  This issue also applies to some cats.  It’s not my intent to ignore cats and cat owners.  My focus is on dogs because that is my personal experience. 

 

Gracie at 4 months old.

Visitors and followers might already know that I got an 8 week old puppy in June, 2023.  Her name is Gracie.  She’s a German Shepherd Dog.  They might also know that I had a difficult time finding a local trainer for her.  I’ve taken part in, or directly trained dogs since I was 8 years old, but I’m now a senior citizen  and it’s been 12 years since I trained a puppy.  I know my limitations, so I had a plan before I brought Gracie home. That plan involuntarily changed first, by not being able to find a local, experienced trainer and secondly, the laser pointer.

In August, I developed edema in both feet.  For 3 weeks, I could not get on shoes.  During those three weeks, I considered that I had to keep Gracie busy inside because I could not walk her.  I hired a local trainer and my main focus was to teach Gracie to walk at heel.  We had been walking and she was doing good, but she has that herding tendency to suddenly put her body across the front of me.  I figured the trainer would concentrate on walking at heel and we would move to other things once my feet were better.

Along with not being dependable, that local trainer betrayed my trust. Rather than teach Gracie to walk at heel, he put her on a 30 foot leash and allowed her to run wherever she wanted because he doesn’t believe a dog should be on leash — only come when called.   I terminated his service after 2 weeks.

It was not only physical exercise that Gracie needed, but mental exercise as well.  Gracie was approaching 5 months old.  I ordered a laser pointer online from Petco.  My intent was to use it to point to items and tell her the name so she would know the names of items.  My plan was to advance her to bringing me items on command.  I purchased the laser pointer based on the product’s description. 

The relevant part is, “… is irresistable [sic] to most pets – from dogs to birds …”

I came to learn, and will share in part 4, why it’s  irresistible and because of that, it causes OCD.

Next: Part 2 – The Laser Pointer Arrived.