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Showing results for tags 'Nelsons new obsession'.
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Lately, I have been having a real problem with Nelson and squirrels. He is a sweatheart and listens fairly well at 15 months. Whenever we walk by birds, cats or anything that he would love to chase - I can see his body change, ears up, tail up etc. I tell him to 'leave it' and he focusses on me and it's all good. The one thing that I don't know how to control is his obsession with the squirrels. As soon as he sees one, he is uncontrollable. I try to have him sit and calm down, but it takes him at least 10 minutes to let it go. When off-leash, he has tried to climb up a tree while we were at the park. Yes, have you have seen a dog try to climb a tree? He ran onto a bike path the other day to chase a squirrel and it was a close call for the biker, they could have both got hurt very bad. When there are squirrels around, all his mind can do, is think about the squirrel. There is nothing he will listen too. I live in Vancouver where there are lots of squirrels and I would love to train him to get over this. I've stopped taking him anywhere off-leash that isn't fenced in or squirrel free (like the dog beach). Which is tough, as Vancouver has hardly any dog parks, just lots of grassy fields to play that aren't fenced in. Even most dog parks in my area, aren't fenced in. I do not want to take him to grass fields to play ball right now, as I can't trust him and I obviously don't want him to get hit by a bike or car. I am looking for some advice on this and would love to hear if you guys had similar experience with (other) animals. I wonder if I have to go back to basic recall training, long leads, treats and clicker. Go to places where there are squirrels, have him on a long lead - and get him used to them?
