OBSESSED with cars

[Tassie]

Mary, I have a friend with a dog whose behaviour in relation to cars sounds very like your foster's - i.e. not a car-chaser as such, but totally fixated - she does the same drop thing. Having said all that, I don't have any fixes, except to suggest that at a conference last year, Pat Miller was saying that she found the front-clip harnesses a much better control mechanism than head halters. I think the Sporn and the Easywalk are examples. Apparently, any pulling by the dog re-directs his body (and thus head) towards you.

 

BTW, I would have to check, but I'm pretty sure Ninso is right about Leslie McDevitt suggesting to actually click the look to the trigger - a clicker-savvy dog will then turn to the handler for a (very high value) reward. She does call it the "Look at that" behaviour - i.e. "Look is fine - now refer back to me". It does sound counter-intuitive, but I've seen it working pretty quickly with a group of dog-reactive dogs.

[dogsofmenace]

I would think by clicking and rewarding when a dog looks at a car, you'd actually be reinforcing this behaviour. If you redirect his behaviour that each time he sees a car, he's asked to sit or looks away, THEN you click and treat, maybe that would be a safer approach. Don't know....

 

Most people think this way, but I know from experience that it actually works wonders. Making a dog look soley at you and not at what they are obsessed or worried by doesn't solve a problem, it justs masks it.

The key is to click when the see the thing, but BEFORE they become obsessed by it. This might mean you have to be very far away from it.

 

Click him when first sees the car, and he'll turn back to you for a treat, thus interupting his chance to become obsessed by it. Once they are reliably looking at it, you can add a cue (Look at that! or I use What's that?) Then it becomes a trick for him. After that you can start to move a little closer, but if he becomes obsessive again, you need to move back. It may take awhile, but eventually you can sit right by a car and tell him to look at it and he will. But he won't be obsessed because to him its just a trick.

 

It also has to do with the Premack Principle. If they are aloud to look at whatever they are obsessed by, its just not as fun anymore! For our formerly dog and cat obsessed dog, looking at the dog or cat is a trick. But he's not very good at it. He'd much rather stare at me then look, and when he does, its a quick glance over and then back to staring at me. If we're walking and see a dog, I'll say What's that? and I click. If I say it again he'll look again, reluctantly. Then we continue our walk. Its a trick. With our older dog, we taught her to ignore anything she's reactive to with a reliable leave it. That doesn't mean she still isn't reactive, it just means that she knows leave it. She's thinking "I can't look I can't look" as opposed to "I know I can look at it, but I don't really want to. It's not as interesting as mom."

 

So it may seem at first that rewarding your dog for looking at what you don't want them to look at doesn't make any since, but it you think about it and do it right, boy does it work. Whatever you decide to do with him, I wish you luck!

[ArcticFox]

Hi MaryP. Some very wise words written above. I too currently have the same issue with a rescue and actually was going to start a thread such as this myself.

 

I own two BC`s, 'Rosie' I got at 8 weeks old and had her walking on the streets as soon as was possible, that seems to be the trick, however 'Kai' my rescue obviously had no life experiences to fall back on once we took to the streets. Again he PULLS like mad, goes after anything that moves - just a nightmare really. Its a shame coz round the house he is so sweet and playful.

 

I have tried most of the ideas above regarding 'pulling' and find the Halti to be the best for me, i know some folks will say different but thats what works for him. As far as the cars thing he is getting better, we sit at the roadside on many occasion and he has to remain composed throughout often remaining 'down' for 15 mins or so at a time. He now ignores most things now whilst walking, tho sometimes the odd broken muffler on a car will spook him.

 

Dont get me wrong tho, even with the Halti he can play -up a bit, just a matter of conditioning really - still ongoing as well.

 

Hope you get some joy soon.

 

Regards

 

Rich

[donna frankland (uk)]

brighid liked to lunge at cars, and over here prong collars are not an option.

the best head collar i have found to help was the canny collar, if they pull or lunge the head goes down with nothing they can do about it.

however, it was rounding on her like all the demons in hell that appears to have done the trick.

i'm not proud of doing it, and as she is such a sensitive thing i didnt pin her. but rdm's post scared they crap out of me and no way was i going to risk losing her under the wheels of a car. she isnt off the lead near roads, but that isnt enough for me. what if she was to break her collar or escape from the house or something? i dont want to rely on the fact that if she is on the lead she is ok, i need to know she will be ok off lead too.

brighid would see a car at night (no headlights = no interest), and she would drop into a down and stare at the car till it was out of sight. sometimes she would lunge at it.

when i realised how dangerous this habit was, i waited till the next started to stare at a car, then i grabbed her and in no uncertain terms told her that it simply wasnt on AT ALL and she could pack it in right now!

the next car that came by she kind of glanced at and she got a loud AAAAHHHHNNNNT, so far she hasnt even looked at another.

i'm not going to say she is cured, cos its too early to tell. but i have gone from thinking it is a little quirk (pre rdm's post) to realising how naive i was being thinking it was nothing much to worry about, and how dangerous the behaviour actually is.

she has plenty of things in her life that she can obsess over, and i will let her but cars aint one of them.

good luck!