I recently discovered the joys of letting Bitz the Wondermutt chase a laser pointer dot. She goes crazed and will joyfully hunt and barrel after the dot for as long as I care to inflict this on her.
A couple of questions, though: 1) Does anyone know WHY dogs and cats are so insane over these things, and 2) Are there any risks of harm to the animal other than making sure you don’t let the dot get near their eyes and don’t overwork them letting them run too hard for too long?
The only reason I ask is there was a woman at the dog park whom I overheard talking about this with someone else. She said, “I’ve heard those are very bad for dogs and can cause health and behavioral problems.”
In the first place, I’m not one to believe something overheard by a random stranger. In the second place, I can’t fathom HOW problems other than the ones mentioned above could occur. However, I’m crazed with love for the mutt, and thought it better to check around here (and yes, I’ll ask my vet when Bitz has her checkup next week) to see if anyone else had heard anything about this.
I don’t take advice from random people about my pets. For example, last week some lady was trying to convince me that feeding chocolate to my dog was a bad idea…
The only “real world” risk I’ve ever heard of is careless owners repeatedly zapping the poor mutts in the eyes…I suppose there could be some kind of Pavlovian response every time you point your hand in a manner that could possibly have a laser pointer in it, but that seems like a remote risk.
I wouldn’t lead them accross a linoleum or hardwood floor at a high rate of speed, then change directions a few inches from the wall or refrigerator. Claws aren’t the best traction on those surfaces. I imagine that could hurt and cause some damage, not only to the wall or fridge, but to the dog as well.
Yeah, we have Pergo floors in part of the house. Bitz only gets to the chase the dot in the carpeted party room or in the back yard. She skitters on the regular floors enough when she’s excited; I don’t need to add the turbo boost of play time to that.
She has kind of developed a Pavlovian thing, too. When she hears a sound similar to the click of the button on the pointer, she perks immediately up and starts looking around. I found that out the other night when I was getting my flashlight before we went for our walk. I tapped it against my hand a couple of times, and she trotted straight into the party room (other side of the house) and started looking around.
Dogs and cats have greater sensitiviy to light than people, so care should be excercised not to shine the laser at your pet’s eyes, but an occassional, momentary accidental exposure shouldn’t cause much retinal damage, if any. Try to use pointers with <1 mW output power to minimize the risks. I play with my mom’s cats with my pointer and most of them love it.
The only REAL risk is laughing ones' fool head off. As long as you don't shoot the pups in the eye balls. THAT is a bad thing. As QED so eloquently pointed out.
We had a Border Collie that used to chase lights - we started off by reflecting light off our watches for him to chase and it was all great fun, but in his case, he learned that if he jumped up against the patio door, it would swing closed (with one almighty crash!!) and reflect the sunlight across the garden for him to chase. We could never wean him of this habit…
All I’m saying is that while it may be cute for a while, be prepared to live with the consequences…
I have heard that it can cause behavior problems, too. I can’t recall the details of what I read or where, as it was some time ago, but it was something about the dog becoming very sensitive to light and shadows, and focusing on the shadow instead of the object- the example given was that one owner realized that her dog was chasing the shadow of the tennis ball rather than the ball. I don’t see why that’s a big deal, but apparently it is.
Depends on what you mean by “low power”. At least one company has begun producing ~1400 nm (IR) diode lasers with output power > 1 W. That’s more than enough to instantly burn a spot in the retina and cause skin blistering with sufficient exposure. They’ll never use anything with that kind of power in pointers, though.
Ben the Sheltie loves the laser pointer. He knows all about how it works, too – if you turn it off but don’t put it away, he barks at your hand until you turn it on again.
We’ve come to use it every morning at the same time we grind coffee – for some reason the whine the grinder makes excites him, and he always wants to play right then. We keep the pointer hung on a magnet-hook on the fridge, so if we grind without pointing, woe be to us; the fridge gets thoroughly barked at and we get significantly looked at. Few dogs deliver guilt and persuasion so well as Shelties!
It hasn’t changed his interest in other toys or his sensitivity to other lights and shadows noticeably. It is fantastic to have a toy you can play with at dusk or after dark outside without getting it lost.