Chasing Cars

[Angela's mom]

Molly loves to go for walks. We live in a quiet, rural housing development that was built back in the 1930's. Roads are narrow and winding. The average cars go about 25 to 30 mph. No sidewalks, just drainage ditches along sides of roads.

When we are walking along and a car comes by, I make Molly sit at my feet until the car passes. She has become so accustomed to sitting that sometimes she will sit down with out being told to, when a car comes by. I usually hang on to her collar or hold closely on the leash.

The last two trips out she has started a behavior that concerns me. She watches the car as it passes us and when the rear bumper has just passed, she will lunge toward the car. I pull back on the collar or leash telling her to sit. But it takes a minute or two to regain her attention. What is the best way to prevent her from lunging? I am so afraid this will lead to chasing cars in the future.

[bubbatd]

Just be aware of it and keep her in a sit until the car has moved on .... then reward her .

The key here is to get the dog to focus on YOU. A car coming should begin to mean to her that IF she pays attention to YOU, she is about to get a particularly tasty or fun reward. Seriously good cheese, leftover table meats, and fun few seconds of a tug game, whatever turns her on.

Find whatever it is that she will ENJOY focusing on, instead of the car. It might be you can also try things like not stopping when a car comes by.

Good luck, I think you just need to take this opportunity to work on building positive focus and attention from your dog and that will take care of your issue.

[lizzybeth727]

I agree, you can definately teach her to focus on you and then try to keep her focus until after the car has passed.

It might also be a good idea to not stop when cars pass. Stopping might make the cars seem more interesting, and since nothing else is going on (the "boring" sit), she might be trying to invent a game. When I walk my dog, I walk on the left side of the road with my dog on my left side - so that if a car comes, she has to walk around me to be in danger of the car, which she shouldn't do if the training was good. Then of course we just continue walking when a car comes, and she usually doesn't even act like she notices it.

[Angela's mom]

Thanks for the advice. I will try the "Keep walking" suggestion when ever possible. Due to the narrow roads we do have to move completely off the road when a car comes. Sometimes we can continue to walk because the grassy area is open but sometimes there is a lot of brush so we need to stop. That is how I got started on the "sit". Thanks again!

[PuppyMama]

I have the same problem in a different situation. We live in a rural area on 20 acres of fenced land. All of our dogs have always been free to roam our land and swim in our pond. Our driveway is about half a mile long and our three puppies love to chase cars coming up the driveway. We lost a puppy two months ago because I didn't see him behind a tree and he ran under my car. Last weekend, one of our three pups did the same , but thankfully I wasn't driving and he survived it.
We do have a dog run that we keep the puppies in during the day, but its just not big enough to keep them in all the time, and I like them to be able to run and have fun. But we constantly have to make sure they are inside when we know people are coming and if a random car comes up like it did last weekend and the pups are outside, there is no way to protect them from themselves. They are 15 weeks old and seem to be very smart and trainable, I'm just not sure how to go about it. What can I do?

[lizzybeth727]

Teach your puppies a recall, and never let them off leash until they are very solid with the recall.

I'm sure you understand the importance of the leash and proper, thorough training, since you've killed or nearly killed two puppies in two months.

[MafiaPrincess]

They are 15 weeks old. They shouldn't be randomly just roaming. Fence off part of the yard from the driveway.. get tie outs.. don't let them out unsupervised ever.. There are options, you'd just have to choose one and use it with the remaining living dogs.

[Angela's mom]

Molly is doing much better with sitting as cars pass. Most of the time when she hears one approaching she will go to the side of the road and sit without a command. The really noisy ones are still of interest to her.

On the other hand we have developed a new problem. Molly is pulling really hard on the leash. When she was very young, 8-10 weeks old she walked so well on her leash. She is almost 4 months and is really pulling now. We saw the vet today for shots and he suggested I get a different kind of collar for walks. His suggestion was a choker collar. I am not real comfortable with that idea. When we were in puppy classes, they are over now, there was a 10 month old puppy who was pulling alot. They were using a collar with a piece that went over the muzzle and you hook the leash to that somehow. They also tried a harness. What works the best? What are the bonuses and drawbacks to each collar?

Thanks, Susan

[MafiaPrincess]

I'm a big fan of a flat buckle collar and training honestly. I like the be a tree method. Dog pulls you stop, dog goes hey we aren't going anywhere looks at you often takes a step or more back into you you continue. For the first while you may not go further than half a block, but it works.

You have taught your dog to pull, so now you have to unteach it. The dog has found that pressure on the collar means that you get to go where she wants. It's been rewarding.. Now you need to teach that only no pressure is going to get you to go anywhere and it will take time. There is also the turn the other way method.. Dog pulls you turn 180 degrees and essentially 'leave the dog behind'.. dog catches up starts to pull you now go the other way leaving her behind again.

Training tools are just that, tools. Whether it be gentle leader, a no pull harness or a prong, technically you are supposed to be weaning off of it to walk normally without at some point. Many people don't though and use it as a bandaid. If you can teach without, why not try that first.