Dogs chasing flashlight beams

Question
A friend of mine swears that her dog loves to chase a flashlight beam as play. My husband and I have a JRT, refusing to use that as a "toy" for him. I thought I remembered hearing something about a flashlight confusing a dog because it stimulated only one of their senses, leaving their brain unable to understand why they couldn't hear, smell or touch it, therefore frustrating the dog.

This has been a point of contention for my friend and me. Your thoughts would be most appreciated.

Answer
Some dogs and cats will chase lights while others won't...the same thing is true of the laser pointers.  My one cat, for example, would always chase the reflection from my watch when the sun hit it but the other 3 cats in the house never bothered.  One will play with the laser pointer and the others won't.  One will watch TV and the others won't.  Some dogs and cats are easily frustrated by different things and I wouldn't necessarily say that playing with the light would frustrate them.