Revolving Weimaraners

[Arch]

There's a chap often exercises a Weimaraner on the grass opposite MFWHTBABs house, and we've noticed that when it returns with the ball its retrieved, it circles several times before returning the ball to the chap - usually fairly tight circles of a few feet across, sometimes a bigger loop - not round the guy, but in front of him.  This morning it was consistently 5 or 6 circles, but it's hard to tell if the guy is giving it a cue to stop, or just waiting for it to stop.

There was a younger guy there tonight with what we think was the same dog, they all look alike to me!  This time it had a frisbee to fetch, and it circled more than a dozen times - the chap was with a girl, and was paying less attention to the dog.

Anyway, is this circling a Weimaraner thing, or a habit of just this dog? I've never seen another dog do it, and the size and repetition of circles seems very regular.

[Auntie Helen]

I had a Weimaraner and it didn't do this.

However I now have a cockapoo and at dog training, when she started circling, the trainer warned me to prevent her from doing this as it's a known thing with spaniels - they can chase their tails endlessly. I always discouraged her when she did it and she almost never does it now (and only for a few revolutions).

[Kim]

I did note (knowing nothing about dogs) that when barakta's colleague's guide dog was playing dodgeball (don't ask), he always seemed to circle anticlockwise when returning the ball.

[Arch]

I had a Weimaraner and it didn't do this.

However I now have a cockapoo and at dog training, when she started circling, the trainer warned me to prevent her from doing this as it's a known thing with spaniels - they can chase their tails endlessly. I always discouraged her when she did it and she almost never does it now (and only for a few revolutions).

Ah, thanks.  This one does seem to have it bad - what interested me yesterday morning was that it was so consistently 5 revolutions - but that might have been the owner 'allowing' that number.