To Help His Dying Dog Rest, This Man Built a Spinning Bed

Thurber couldn't stop spinning. He spun and spun and spun until he collapsed, totally exhausted from the effort.

The obsessive spinning ramped up in intensity and compulsion slowly, over the course of several years, until it warranted a trip to a dog neurologist. The news—that Thurber was suffering from a tumor—was crushing to owners Sara Lynn Michener and Jason Dorie, and watching him spend his last days stuck in a literal loop of exhaustion added to the pain.

As Hackaday noted, compulsive spinning can be a sign of neurological illness in dogs, canine cognitive dysfunction, or doggie Alzheimer's.

However bizarre and tiring the behavior, spinning seemed to somehow soothe Thurber, Dorie told Motherboard via email. He put Thurber in his dog bed and spun the bed for him manually, a move he called "an act of desperation, because it was clearly important to him for some reason that he spin, and I wanted to know if it was the pacing, or just turning that he was compelled to do." Thurber fell asleep right away. If only they had a turntable to plop the pup down on while he rested, he thought.

Dorie's not a DIY novice. He previously made an automatic dog feeder. He built a rotating bed, dubbed the "Dementia-Go-Round," from a platform from 1/8" plywood, attached to motors and wheels that they had on hand. The motors were set to slip if the platform was blocked, so that it wouldn't hurt Thurber if he shifted off the bed—but they kept a watchful eye on him, just in case anything malfunctioned.

It worked. "He was a little unsure at first, then just kind of sat there, half supporting himself, but slowly relaxing, and pretty quickly just laid his head down on the edge of the bed and relaxed with what I swear was a goofy grin on his face." Even the veterinarians and nurses were stunned at how well it worked.

It only got four days of use before Thurber died. They didn't get a chance to test it extensively, but Dorie said he's open to sharing plans with other pet owners eventually. "It didn't help Thurber for long, but it was worth its weight in gold for his last few days."