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for the chase-y herding dogs…

Robin was about 8 months old when he came up with an awesome game…

By awesome I mean awful…

Robin decided one day while we were walking near a fairly busy road that running after a speeding car would be a fun new trick. He was on leash and there was little to no risk in the moment, but it scared me silly.

I had a flashback to my first dog Barnabas (border collie mix with more prey drive than he knew what to do with) who had a car chasing problem. I was not equipped at the time with the training skills or knowledge to fix it so it was terrifying to walk with him.

The last thing in the world I wanted was to have another Barnabas on my hands.

My knee jerk reaction in that moment was that I pulled back on the leash and gave Robin a stern “no.”

I’ve never told this dog “no” in his life. He has been raised with 100% positive methods.

He has zero idea what “no” means…

But he didn’t race after cars again on that walk so I breathed a sigh of relief that my quick fix had done it’s job…

Until the next walk.

He did the same thing.

Corrections can be a training shortcut in some instances… They are few and far between, but sometimes they work.

This is not one of those cases. By correcting the behavior, you only add fuel to the fire. What starts as a playful behavior can turn into a behavior rooted in fear.

Robin chased the car because he is a dog with a LOT of prey drive. I’ve built his prey drive up because I want to use it in herding, agility, dock diving, and loads of other sports.

He saw something move and his instinct was to chase it. That’s not a “defiant” dog or a “naughty” dog. That’s a dog reacting the way his breed has been bred to react. Herding dogs herd, chase, and follow moving things.

It’s genetics, plain and simple.

You can’t correct instinct out of a dog.

However, you can teach them new ways of viewing the world and through consistent training, you can create new conditioned emotional responses to almost anything.

Since Robin’s car chasing was not a one-time thing, I sat down and created a training plan with attainable goals and strategies to incorporate into daily training.

Some of the key aspects of Robin’s training included:

  1. Starting away from the road. You can’t be successful by the trigger unless you are first successful in an easy environment.

  2. Choosing a consistent environment. I always trained near an intersection. This allowed for consistent breaks in traffic and varying difficulty that was easy to predict. Red lights are easy when traffic is stopped. Green lights are harder when traffic is moving. I avoid training by country roads or neighborhood roads as they are unpredictable and unsafe with more speeding drivers than you would encounter in the city.

  3. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use a leash. Bonus points for a fence between the road and your dog. Safety first!

  4. Watch your dog, not the cars. Your dog will tell you when the pressure is too much and you can adjust according to your dog. Watch body language to gauge if they are relaxed or stressed – eyes, ears, mouth, tail. Pay attention to how they take food rewards – are they chomping them out of your hands or taking them politely?

The training itself looked something like this:

  1. We walked a big, brisk circle near the road, and I kept him moving at a steady gait.

  2. As we approached the road, I marked with a “yes,” and immediately stepped away from the road as I delivered the food reward.

  3. And then we’d start the circle again.

I only reward at the peak of pressure. The hardest spot in the circle for my dog to pay attention is closest to the road, so that is where they earn the reward. By saying “yes” by the road and then stepping away to give the reward, it takes the pressure away so they can enjoy the reward in peace.

At red lights, I may scatter some food in the grass and allow the dog to sniff and find it. This is very calming for them and allows them to relax.

It only took a handful of training sessions with Robin to achieve engagement and focus near the road. He now sees vehicles as cues for attention and automatically looks to me.

Thoughts, questions? Leave a comment below! Thanks for reading!

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