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Still Chasing Cars...


Echo

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All very interesting..

 

I have always heard of people saying that problems with dogs are usually caused by their owners, but I never really of that with myself, though, after reading all of this I am positive that I am the problem. It probably didn't help that all I pretty much did when he was younger was let him run around the farm, barely walking him....oops. If only time travel were real :rolleyes:

 

What's the "process" of teaching self control? Is it as simple as NILIF?

 

I see border collies around my neighborhood house once in a while, and they are always really well behaved, and looking to their owners for (and following) direction...how do I achieve this? Does it come more with age?

 

Ah...it's always "Mom's" fault, sigh...:). I'm a human mother as well and yeah, we carry a heavy responsibility ..and not always a fair share of the blame. I have two year old pups and I'm realizing we've suddenly reached a whole new stage of development at this house!

 

Not sure if this will be helpful, but here's a tip...

My camera has a video feature and I've been recently carrying it as even if I can't video much of our interaction, I can record my "conversation" with Robin - We're working gaining control when he's "off duty" -- around the sheep pasture, but not actually working the sheep. He is to ignore them. Tough for a ready to work pup. I record him when I can, and when I can't have him in the picture, I still have my recorded voice to listen to.

 

I want to know just exactly what am I saying to him, how am I saying it, how often am I saying it? If he doesn't do as I ask, am I really giving him a chance to react before I react to his perceived non-reaction? How much "noise" is there between the commands that I really want him to listen to? I'm learning a lot about my idiotic behavior as a handler. It's eye opening.

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Gloria's comments about timing are spot on - for many situations and issues, it is often a matter of poor timing rather than what you are doing per se, that means you don't get the sort of results you are hoping for.

 

 

I would concur, this seemed critical with Dexter. If he was already in chase mode forget about him paying any attention to the correction. I actually started correcting him as soon as you could hear a car down the road and I would repeat as the car approached our property to reinforce.

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I took Kaiser for a walk yesterday on a trail that crosses a road at one point, and he tried to lunge at a loud truck while we were waiting to cross over the first time, but on the way back there was another dog in front of us. Kaiser didn't even notice the cars that were passing by. I didn't think that anything could distract him from focusing on the cars...proved wrong again ;)

 

...that gave me a little bit of hope and more determination ( for lack of a better word) :)

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It seems like everything that has been tried has little to do with actual training. More like scare the dog away from chasing. This only works for as long as you can scare them, or until the drive overrides the fear.

 

Exactly - and it's all given the poor dog all the more reason to want to chase away the scary thing that causes pain when it appears.

 

It may have started with a natural desire to chase a moving object but it's very likely there is more to it now.

 

As others have said, there is no quick fix - unless the OP is prepared to really share the bejasus out of the dog and risk doing permanent mental harm to it,and wrecking the relationship between them in the process.

 

CU is way to complicated for the average person and I haven't found anything in it that hasn't been done before, but the principles are sound. Baby steps are needed away from the stimulus - but most of all put yourself in the dog's position instead of seeing it as an object that needs to be "fixed".

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