Oblivious to cars

[nancy]

How can I teach Dixie that cars are moving and are dangerous? She's 3-1/2 years old and has no inkling about cars. She would just step out in front of one if she were ever off leash. She sure wouldn't chase one, but she seems to have no idea that a car is actually moving.

 

If a neighbor honks, she reacts just as if a waking neighbor yells hello.

[moosikins]

Is it possible to just create a negative association? I don't know that it's healthy to scare the crap out of your dog, but I'm thinking it beats getting hit (knock on wood that it never, ever happens).

 

Cal is afraid of moving vehicles thankfully. She must gotten scared by one at some point when she was a puppy (we don't recall, but she obviously does) and shrinks away from passing cars.

 

I have heard, and I've been told on this board, that Border Collies in particular have issues with cars. Chasing things that move is natural for them and there's something about them following lights obsessively too so headlights might be an issue. Good luck!

[nancy]

I have tried yelling, "CAR!!" and even acting scared when one comes by. Dixie just looks at me like I'm an idiot.

[highway61]

Count your blessings, how many of us have BCs that want/will chase cars if we let them? (I'm one)

[nancy]

Fergie wanted to chase cars. I was able to teach her to sit, then to just stop, when a car went by. I'm definitely thankful that Dixie doesn't want to chase. But knowing that she will just walk out in front of a car (or truck) with no idea that it is even moving is quite frightening.

[Root Beer]

I would try teaching her to move out of the way of other objects moving toward her. I would try to have someone come along with a bicycle or wagon or something. Move right toward her, and then call her out of the path, reinforce. I would continue that until I started to see a default move out of the path of the object and then stop calling her out of the path.

 

From there I would work this with other things. The idea being - things moving toward me is a cue to move out of the way.

 

You could do the same thing with honking. For that you could use the car (stationary). Have someone honk, toss something away from the car. Build an association with "honk" means "move away". That would probably be even easier.

 

That would be my starting place.

[denice]

I start teaching pups it is not a good idea to get in the way of things when they are wanting to walk in front of my feet or chew shoestrings or attack your feet. They get a little boot out of the way and a correction. Then learn to stay out of the way of wheel barrel or get a boot from that. I move up to a 4 wheeler as they are ready to start working. I will usually have a bottle of water or something I can shake or throw or make noise to make my point that this will hurt if you dont be careful. With cars I have had friends drive up with pop cans with pennies in them that make noise that they will throw out the window. I have also taught dogs to go sit in the porch or close to the house when they hear an engine start or if a car drives in they go to the house and sit until engine is off , person gets out and car door is shut Only then are they allowed to come greet people. There are dogs that need a eye opening shocking experience before they give vehicles a wide birth. I have no problem with that. Shock collars I feel can be effective if all else fails, if it is a life and death lesson they need to learn then I believe they are justified. I also never allow my dogs to sleep under vehicles, just a bad habit I will not allow to get started.

[simba]

I would go with Root Beer on this one. I've met a dog who was taught to be afraid of cars, she then decided that the obvious option was to attack and chase what she was afraid of. It depends on your dog, though, that might not be her reaction- it's just something I'm wary of because of that.

[GentleLake]

^^ Ditto.

 

Another downside to making them afraid of cars is that you might have a lot of trouble getting the dog into a car when you need to.

 

I'm all for starting out with a positive approach. Teach the dog to avoid the road and to retreat from moving cars with positive reinforcement for doing it.

 

The more aversive methods would be a last resort IMO. They're always there to fall back on if you've given the other methods a fair shot and they don't work, but it's just not what I'd start out with.

[Root Beer]

I would also have concern about a dog conditioned to be fearful of cars that the dog might panic and actually run into harms way.

 

As GentleLake said, I also teach the dog to view the road as a boundary. I just do this by taking my dog down by the road, asking for a sit/stay, walking into the road myself (I live along a road that is not very busy), and then going back to the dog and releasing the dog to go back to the house (obviously, this is done after I have a solid sit/stay, not when a dog is learning that skill). I do this consistently and it works well. I used to do this with Dean when I rolled down the trash or went to get the can. Dean knows only to go onto the road if I call him onto the road with me.

[nancy]

We live in suburbia. So Dixie and I have to walk on the neighborhood roads. So I cannot teach her to avoid the roads.

[geonni banner]

I would also have concern about a dog conditioned to be fearful of cars that the dog might panic and actually run into harms way.

 

As GentleLake said, I also teach the dog to view the road as a boundary. I just do this by taking my dog down by the road, asking for a sit/stay, walking into the road myself (I live along a road that is not very busy), and then going back to the dog and releasing the dog to go back to the house (obviously, this is done after I have a solid sit/stay, not when a dog is learning that skill). I do this consistently and it works well. I used to do this with Dean when I rolled down the trash or went to get the can. Dean knows only to go onto the road if I call him onto the road with me.

This is how I teach my dogs to respect a road. You need to do it with all kinds of roads - not just ones with curbs. Curbs are a good place to start. It's an obvious demarcation. If your dog has a wait/OK sequence for doors and gates it will be easier still. Also good to practice long sits or downs, (from a distance) in case you find yourselves on opposite sides of the road sometime. I've seen dogs run into a street if told to sit from the other side. They thought sit always meant sit right here in front of me. I would want to see a sit/down so solid that the dog will plant its forepaws and resist hard traction on a lead.

[GentleLake]

We live in suburbia. So Dixie and I have to walk on the neighborhood roads. So I cannot teach her to avoid the roads.

 

She can still be taught not to go into a road, any road, unless she's with a person.

 

When you're walking on these neighborhood roads, is she on leash or off? If she's on leash, she should also be taught never to step foot on a road when she's off leash without someone.

 

So back to your original post, if she's chasing cars when you're on the neighborhood roads she should be put on a leash so she can't do it. If she's still trying to when she's on a leash, then you need to work to desensitize her to the cars, meaning you'll have to back up to a point where she's under threshold and start the work there.

[chene]

We've been teaching Aed to run to the sidewalk/edge of the road as soon as he sees a car, if he's not already there. l think it helped that he was already used to spotting cars for me from LAT training with them. We just used our own car and friends' cars to teach it. It works quite well for me.

[Root Beer]

I never thought of using LAT for this - typically I use it to condition a dog to not pay attention to things.

But that could very well work!