My dog loves to chase her tail. She will do it for long stretches of up to seven minutes, doing npthing else but running in circles(she’s so cute!). If I did that, I would fall to the ground and not be able to get back up, but she has no such problem. Why is that?
You need to listen to the beginning of Atomic Dog … (“For the dog that chases it’s tail … will be dizzy”)
WAG: they’re not actually spinning, they’re orbiting around a center point. See, we’re upright, they’re not…
Just a wag, tho.
Dogs can certainly get falling down dizzy.
…pun intended?
I rather enjoy making dogs and cats dizzy.
Pet them, they lay on their side on hardwood or linoleum, and spin them with one hand in generally the crotch area.
yours or theirs?
on second thoughts I dont need to know
I have what is a lower level speculation than a WAG - one reason we get dizzy is that the fluids in our semicircular canals gets moved away from the “normal” standing up straight level placement. That, coupled with our visual input that says that we are, infact, normal and standing up straight level, provides contradictory information to the brain. SC canals saying that we’re lying down, eyes saying that we’re standing up - ergo: ARGH, WTF - I’m dizzy. At least, that’s part of the explanation for our dizziness. But - a dog’s eyes are placed at the side of his head, and he has a different view of the world, so maybe this does not present the inherent conflict that our eye placement does. We get a clear picture of the horizon by our horizontally paired eyes. He doesn’t. Maybe that’s part of the reason. Oh, also, I’ve seen dogs dizzy - but not from spinning, so I know they have coordinational hazards. Not just from the same sources. xo, C.
my understanding of dizziness is that the fluid in your inner ear gets moving around the circular canals (telling u that you’re spinning), but when u stop abruptly the fluid still has some momentum/movement so it KEEPS telling your brain that you are spinning for a little bit. its disorienting because its in direct conflict with what your eyes tell your brain.
seems to me that dogs could get dizzy too.
my guess is they just get used to it, just like a person can get used to certain motions and eventually not get dizzy from them. i remember that certain spinning drills in wrestling practice used to get me dizzy at first, but i gradually got used to them.
I make mine dizzy all the time. I pick her up and hold her in front of me, and we sway back and forth for about 5 minutes. Then I put her down, and she is clearly disoriented for a little bit. Never fails to amuse me.
Even if they’re dizzy, it’s easier for dogs to stay upright since they have four legs.
I don’t know about dogs, but cats do. I used to spin mine around on a swivel chair and he would jump off and run straight into the wall.
When my puppy Zilla chases her tail or chases one of her toys that I’m swinging around in the air, she sometimes gets dizzy. Agree with the poster above that it’s harder for a 4-legged animal to fall down, though.