HELP

[angel_star]

My puppy is now 15 weeks and training is going really well. The problem we have is cars.

I know shes got a natural herding instinct, but now every time a car drives past shes barking and trying to chase it. She has only done it for the past 3 days so far.

She is totally focused on the cars and won't listen to a single word i say.

I'm getting worried for her safety now as she managed to slip her harness yesterday. I only just managed to grab her before she ran into the road.

Please can anyone offer advice on how to stop this before she gets hurt.

many thanks.

 

julie & jasmine

[BC-Liz]

Is she treat motivated? Get infront of her and put her in a sit, keep her attention with a treat. It may have to be the yummiest treat imaginable at first (piece of cheese or hotdog perhaps?) The idea is to redirect her attention to you whenever a car comes by.

 

As for the harness...all my dogs are on choke collars, the simple kind with just a chain, no pinchers. It would be very hard for her to slip out of a choke collar. You can also use the choke as a correction, just a quick snap to get her attention and/or correct a behavior. The idea is not to actually choke your dog but to be able to communicate with it.

 

Good Luck!!

 

Edit: Since she's so young you do have to be careful with a choke collar. I'd wait till she's a little older to start using it in training but for safetly purposes I think it's a surefire way of not slipping a collar...there's also a combination collar/choke that you can get from petsmart. or those collars that they use for greyhounds...I forget the name.

[twmoose82]

For the getting out of the leash part I would recommend a Premier Collar. I think the type is called a Martingale or something like that. The collar does not have a clip, but instead you loop it around the dogs neck and tighten it accordingly. There is a seperate piece of material on top of the collar that you attach the leash to and when the dog tries get away the bottom collar tightens on the dog. In my experience it does not tighten enough to hurt the dog and it prevents the dog from slipping out. We had this issue before with Moose and this gave my wife piece of mind on walks.

 

Obviously training her to stop chasing cars is the best route but this collar should help in the meatime.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

You need to do what's called "replacing with an incompatible behavior."

 

The idea is to get her to where she'll look at you (not good if you want to do herding with her someday), or lie down if she gets "that feeling." NOW is the age to do it.

 

Let's say you pick lie down as the behavior. You go to where she can barely see cars going by, and ask her to lie down just when you see her get that twinkle in her eye. If she ignores you, say, "AH-AH!" walk away in the opposite direction really fast (she's on leash of course), then ask her to lie down again. She should do it this time, and tell her she's a good dog, or whatever you do to reinforce good behavior (clicker reinforcement is good to insert here).

 

Next time don't try it quite as close. Then work your way up to where she had the first failure. Anytime she is unable to comply, back up to where she can.

 

Meanwhile, please try to rearrange things so that she's NOT exposed to cars at any other time. Yes, you may have to forgo walks for a couple weeks. Pretend she has a broken leg or she is ill, and it's necessary for her health for you to find other, less convenient ways to exercise her. And really that's true, if you think about it.

 

At fifteen weeks she doesn't have huge exercise requirements anyway. Work intensely enough on desensitizing her to the cars and she will be exhausted mentally, anyway. It wouldn't be good for her to have other stimulation thrown in on top of that.

 

Good luck!

[grenzehund]

Yes, definitely opt for the martingale-style collar from premier, much safer than a choke chain, especially for a vulnerable youngster.

 

For training, work on a quick recall, or a "look at me", at home (without distractions). Then increase the distractions til you can walk outside. If traffic's light enough, try to see the approaching car before Jasmine does, get her attention (look at me, sit), and hold it til the car passes. Soon she may start looking to you (for a treat, possibly) when a car approaches. This strategy worked for my dog (though she was an unschooled 5 years old when I got her, not a puppy).

 

Do be patient and don't walk her near the street til she has a solid "look at me", sit, whatever. Upping the ante is a slow process and you need to be confident she knows her commands.

 

Good luck

 

Susan

[BC-Liz]

For the getting out of the leash part I would recommend a Premier Collar. I think the type is called a Martingale

 

That's the name I couldn't remember. I knew it started with an M. The collar/choke combo is the same sort of thing but has a chain instead of extra fabric that you clip your leash to. I'd suggest useing this on a pup instead of a choke as well.

[angel_star]

Thank you to everyone who has replied. will try out some of the suggestions and keep you posted.

[BustopherJones]

Subtopic 1 - Collars

My vet prefers closure collars to regular collars, as a regular collar can potentially damage the front of the dog's throat, while a closure collar applies equal force all the way around a dog's neck. As a control mechanism, I prefer a Martingale or Check-Choke collar to a regular choke collar. The designs achieve desired control, but limit the absolute closure of the collar so as minimize risk of injury to the dog.

 

Subtopic 2 - Cars

Annie was also overly fasincated with cars. When she sould start to take off, I would reign her in and yell "BAD CAR!" (I use the word "bad" with her only when there is a risk involved and I want to make the point that the conduct is absolutely not tolerable). She eventually got the point; now when a car passes, she still pays attention, but does not try to chase it.

[sweet_ceana]

Ceana was a car chaser, as was Poke. We trained them to look at us when a cars comes so now when they see a car and get excited the turn their heads and look at us.