My son and DIL have a dog that is obsessed with staring at the walls and floors. She is intent, as if she is channeling something very interesting, slow tail wag and then will suddenly stop the tail, all intent. It’s exactly as if the walls have voices or something, we joke about the spirits. They’ve moved three times with her and she’s the same in each house, just fixates on the walls and floors. Eyesight is good, vets perfectly (and she has had to fly internationally a couple times) and is good natured and especially patient with their young son. If she’s neuro this is entirely how it expresses. She’s super sweet, good with people, no other issues at all and she’s plumb happy with her wall watching hobby. After facetiming with them tonight and watching her throughout it just really made me wonder about what in the world. She was a freebie type TX pup, definitely some heeler in there and maybe BC/Kelpie? She doesn’t have an ounce of chase in her, one of the sweetest friendliest dogs I’ve ever met but… the walls are talking to her. I just really wonder about her though I love her to death. COTH alerts that a similar post was posted in 2013 but here we are.
Often a form of epilepsy (petit mal seizures), but it doesn’t quite sound like that in this case.
Possibly she’s listening to the echoes off the walls. Or mice or insects in the walls. Any chance she’s watching light reflections move across the surfaces?
I would say mice. When I was a young, single woman living in an apartment, my two cats would stare at the wall behind me when they were sitting on my lap/chest. I would whip around thinking there was a spider on the wall behind my head but never saw one.
One night, I finally put my ear to the wall and heard the skitter of little feet. I never had mice in the apartment, but they were definitely in the walls. 
A friend had a border collie that was completely border collie normal.
About two years, she started staring intently at a place in the yard, always the same.
Vet concluded it may be seizures, right age for those to start, but so light ones it didn’t need medication.
Dog kept staring intermittently in that one spot.
Several months later, the gas company came by, there was a leak in the line and went looking for it.
Seeing dog fixated in that spot, they dug there and sure enough, there was the leak. 
We had a JRT who stared non-stop at the Christmas tree each year. Best guess was it was the light reflecting on the ornaments that caught his eye.
I have a mixed breed lab that stares at walls. Mostly corner walls. One is the corner in the basement beside the TV (where a speaker is also located) and one is the corner by the front door (adjacent to where the leashes are).
For the basement I think he’s listening to the reverberations of sound bouncing around. For the main floor there’s an air vent in that spot and I think he’s hearing/smelling things that catch his attention coming up the vent.
He’s not the smartest dog I’ve ever known and he becomes fixated rather easily on things in general.
Seizures and mice / critters are much less appealing thoughts.
He has always done this so I plan to just shrug it off because he’s healthy and happy in his little doggie life.
I was thinking about her more and realized that she really does intently when it’s busy or hectic, when we’re visiting there or facetiming with them. I’ll have to ask them if there is a pattern; they mostly just accept that she’s a little weird but I’m trying to understand her lol . I always used to think mice or sounds in the wall, etc but they’ve lived in three different houses and last night she was MOST enthralled with the tile floor. She was exactly like a dog that wants you to throw the tennis ball, staring at it, slow tail wag, look up to check in and then back down to … the invisible tennis ball. Then she’ll run over to another invisible tennis ball and stare at that one. She has that intense little stare that really makes it hard not to also look at the wall with her sometimes. ha ha She’s such a hodgepodge of breeding that unfortunately I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of seizures involved but right now she’s doing really well other than making a spectacle of herself.
I can only imagine how frustrating this was for the border collie and how redeemed she felt when the pros finally showed up! lol
This made me laugh out loud!
Staaaph it!! you are killing me over here I am trying to work!
All joking a side, you said she may be a BC, healer, mutt mix pup; what heartworm and flea med is she on? Don’t owners have to be careful with Ivermectin and border collies? It can cause seizures right???
I had a pittie boxer cross that would display bizzare neuro behavior with Trifexis. It took me 3 months, (3 doses) to figure it out.
We have a shepherd on AKC paper that’s actually either a cat or a border collie - hard to say. She had a spot she’d stare at. She’d crouch and stare, then just lie down. We had our siding replaced last summer and found a very intricate tunnel system the moles created. She was fixated on their common entrance…
I’ll ask them about meds; she had to get into Germany and then back to the US so I imagine she had a full checkup but I’ll find out!
We were laughing at her so much last night on our chat, we all see the humor in it but I want to make sure there isn’t something more serious!
Mice? Our one dog who sleeps with us will sometimes stare at the quilt on the bed. She must see a bug, tick or spider ( or think she does).
The other night she was doing it and suddenly there was a small, very fast spider on me!! I hate spiders…
Nothing to add about the wall staring hobby but she is a twin to our dog!!!
We adopted our pup (now Arya, formerly Teacup) back in 2020. Can’t believe she’s 3.5! We did a DNA test and she’s mostly Australian Cattle Dog. She certainly has the stubbornness of an ACD but that’s about it.
Hope it’s nothing nefarious!
Her mama was clearly a heeler so that tracks really well! I have the weirdest suspicion that the dad was something smaller and weirder, like a minpin but I can’t prove it. ha ha They are the same age too!
Wow - that’s amazing!!
A little late to this thread but my 11yo boxer stares at walls and also rhythmically slowly licks his chops. He has had a seizure disorder for many years and these are his “daytime” seizures. At night he is more likely to have a grand mal seizure.
This one acts exactly like there is a tennis ball in the walls/floors. She fixates like a BC but is still aware of her surroundings, almost like she wants everyone else to notice what she sees. She’s never had a seizure so far but I’m sorry your dog does! That would be really scary. 
My dog is part heeler/kelpie. She stares at the walls a minute or two before my husband’s car turns onto our street. They can hear things we can’t even imagine with those ears!
My cat sits on the couch facing the back, eyes wide open, and stares at the fabric all day. I don’t think there is anything wrong with her, she’s 15 and has been really stupid since she was a kitten. I didn’t know cats came in stupid, but this one is.
This made me laugh outloud.
I had a really stupid Persian cat. She was pretty, … but dang. The lights were on, but no one was home. She always sat just far enough way to be petted. Was never very friendly, and had no interest in being a part of the family. (she was given to us).
One day a bat got in the house and it flew down the stairs with my dad in hot pursuit with a broom and shovel. That cat jumped up 6 feet in the air and caught that bat!! It was the only time she behaved like a cat.
