Car Circling.

[Elizabeth77]

HI , I like the new format , thank you.

Meg goes into a frenzy when vehicles leave my home or when lawnmower starts. Now there is no problem when a car drives in not even a bark but once someone even sits in the car to leave,no engine running, the frenzy starts. There is no controlling her , getting eye contact or catching her.

I have tried putting her on the lead while cars leave saying 'good dog' etc if she behaves but that all goes west when off the lead. Yes I can keep her in the house but I really want to control this frenzy behaviour at source, whatever the source may be. Any ideas? Thank you.

[Cynthia P]

HI , I like the new format , thank you.

Meg goes into a frenzy when vehicles leave my home or when lawnmower starts. Now there is no problem when a car drives in not even a bark but once someone even sits in the car to leave,no engine running, the frenzy starts. There is no controlling her , getting eye contact or catching her.

I have tried putting her on the lead while cars leave saying 'good dog' etc if she behaves but that all goes west when off the lead. Yes I can keep her in the house but I really want to control this frenzy behaviour at source, whatever the source may be. Any ideas? Thank you.

 

 

You need to get her in control before the car leaves, lawnmower starts etc. You want to have her be calm when it starts up. Go as far away as possible with her being calm. When she starts circling after they have already started the car or mower it is too late; correct her, bring her to a place where she can be calm..

 

May need lots of reps; Make sure she knows it is not a welcome behaviour! and make sure when she is being good you let her know!

 

cynthia

[ejano]

HI , I like the new format , thank you.

Meg goes into a frenzy when vehicles leave my home or when lawnmower starts. Now there is no problem when a car drives in not even a bark but once someone even sits in the car to leave,no engine running, the frenzy starts. There is no controlling her , getting eye contact or catching her.

I have tried putting her on the lead while cars leave saying 'good dog' etc if she behaves but that all goes west when off the lead. Yes I can keep her in the house but I really want to control this frenzy behaviour at source, whatever the source may be. Any ideas? Thank you.

How old is Meg? My one thought is to say nothing to her...no correction, no "good dog" - just turn her away from the noise and keep walking..you are teaching her that the situation is no big deal by your calm lack of reaction - if she's a pup. If she's an older dog with a deeply ingrained habit, it will take a great deal of work to break her habit. There's a behavior modification called "Look at That" that's mentioned on the boards...I've not quite got the hang of it, but others have found it very helpful. I've used clicker training on an intermittant basis for steadying one of my dogs and that has helped a great deal as well.

 

Liz

[Elizabeth77]

Thank you for the replies. I will persevere and try your suggestions. It would be wonderful to break Meg of this habit. She is about 3 years old now.

[Sue R]

I'm leaning towards an amalgam of both suggestions - first, to be proactive by doing *something* before the issue is even on the radar (before there's any indication that someone is leaving). Second, to do everything in a very matter-of-fact, calm and quiet, no-big-deal manner.

 

I have an issue with Celt and Dan. Celt has become a problem in terms of resource guarding certain things but the largest issue is his crate (or, shall I say "crate time" which is often "meal time"). I tried putting a barrier between his and Dan's crate. Not much improvement. Of course, I was giving correction for the undesired behaviors. But the problem was escalating in that Celt was becoming ramped up well in advance of any potential crate/meal time, like coming into the house from outside at a time of day that might result in crate or meal time.

 

So, first, we moved Dan's crate to another room, with both dogs out of sight of each other, and in a location where I would crate Dan first, before crating Celt in the next room. So, out of sight - check. Dan is crated up first and can't go near Celt's crate at the "touchy" times - check. Don't even touch the food dishes until all are crated and quiet and polite - check. If Celt grumbles from his crate, he is corrected and progress towards dinner is halted until he stops. The aggressiveness has reduced significantly but even more than that is that the tenseness has reduced tremendously.

 

A side effect is that Dan seems to be avoiding conflict - he will often wait in the mud room when we come inside, until I tell him to crate up or until Celt is on into the other room and maybe already in his crate. He also seems to be avoiding some other triggers to Celt's insecure behavior, or minimizing them. And I am making an effort to make other potentially problematic times better, like rewarding good behavior with attention and praise, and making those times happy times instead of tense times when we all are wondering if something will happen (in our house, we call that "making a party out of it" like in potentially scary or worrisome situations).

 

And we try to do it all with a very quiet, no-big-deal, nothing's-going-to-happen approach - which tends to keep everyone as calm and relaxed as possible - including me!

 

So, just an example of working with the situation *before* it happens, being consistent, being low-key - and avoiding the triggers to the undesired behaviors.

 

I am sure other folks will have much better advice for your situation. Very best wishes!