I am 'mum' to amber who is just over 2 years old, a fox red working type lab. She is my first dog and a beautiful, intelligent and affectionate girl. For the past year I have been sharing her with her 'dad' (my former partner) so she has 2 homes now. She usually spends 3-4 weeks with each of us alternating and she has become used to this arrangement without too much difficulty but I have one challenge which is causing me stress. Over the past few months amber has become much bolder off the lead and got a taste - I would now call it an addiction- for chasing wildlife. Unfortunately her 'dad' and I have different attitudes to dealing with this and he does not mind her chasing deer, badgers etc at twilight as he then recalls her with the whistle (her recall is good) whereas I want to stop giving her the chance to chase and then work on keeping her closer on walks by reverse walking etc. Without consistency this method will not work as it's undone while she is away from me so I am starting again each time and it seems that l am going to have to either use a long lead or get stressed. I wonder if anyone has any other suggestions as to how I can manage this, or should I stop stressing and let her off the lead where i know it's safe. I have asked ambers 'dad' to cooperate with me as I wanted to stop this issue before it became ingrained but that hasn't happened, I know that Ideally a dog lives in one place but we both are attached. Thank you for your help. Jane
I think I'd have to say, if you don't have his support, you're on a hiding to nothing training her not to chase, because she's being rewarded for doing so when she's with him. Not only that, her recall is going to suffer if he keeps on using it to call her away from something as exciting as a chase. It is not OK for a dog to chase wildlife. Not just because of the dog's training and safety (what if she chases something that fight back, or runs across a road, or follows a critter into its hole and gets stuck?), but for the poor animal that's being chased and heavily stressed, too. I would keep on at your ex to understand why it's not acceptable behaviour and the danger it could be to Amber.
Ditto @snowbunny AND, it may be illegal to allow her to chase or otherwise harass wildlife. It is here. People tend to be especially sympathetic to "bambi" and we have heard of people shooting or trying to hit with their cars dogs chasing deer. Dogs can learn to behave quite differently with one partner than another. My sister's in-laws let Laddie up on her chesterfield when they babysat her kids but Laddie never got up on it when Sis was there. However chasing is much more exciting and I think you are right to worry about her doing it all the time.
Hi thank you for the advice. I completely agree it's dangerous and dogs can be shot for chasing livestock and deer here not to mention the risk of running into a road. I did stress this all to him initially when it became an issue but it doesn't seem to have sunk in and he's intelligent and I feel he does care about her welfare so it's very difficult, I also don't want to fall out with him..! I have her back for a month from tomorrow so I can manage her differently for a good few weeks but I will continue to stress to him about the chasing behaviour. I'll talk to him about the recall too. It has turned an enjoyable walk into a source of stress for me unfortunately. Amber is not a naughty dog she's just learned something very rewarding that is being reinforced.
Sorry to be personal but are you on reasonably good terms with your ex? Just wondering if you could maybe take Amber to training classes together or go and talk to a trainer about Amber's behaviour, the dangers involved to her, wildlife etc. and maybe he will see he needs to change his behaviour and train her. A long shot but if you both love her it's an option. x
Nor do I, as I'd heard stories of people filming their dogs while chasing deer, then putting it on social media, turning it into a sport. I don't want to be associated with such people. It really is a shame as Bradgate Park is beautiful. As usual a few ignorant people spoil things for everyone else.
We are on pretty good terms but I know that he wouldn't go to training classes together with me as I have raised it before. I am going to start agility with her though and he is thinking of putting a course in his garden so that will be a good activity for her I hope.
That's a really good start for Amber and a course in his garden, great. I hope that leads to him realising he needs to train Amber for her to be a well behaved dog. You could buy him a copy of Pippa's Total Recall book, excellent for teaching recall, lots of exercises to work through and they really work, I can vouch for that x
She's pretty good in terms of training it's just the one issue that's become a problem. I'll talk to him and try again.
She's pretty good in general as we have done lots of training with her but on this issue we have different tolerances and I worry about it a lot. I have thought about buying total recall so that is a good idea thank you x
OK, my sister had a dog that chased deer, and on one walk he disappeared off to the horizon, two shots were heard and he was never seen again. This happened a couple of years ago, in West Sussex. He was an English setter. Either he was run over, or stolen, or keeled over and died - but he likely was shot. His body was never found; there was never any trace of him, and they spent hours, days, weeks and months of misery, not knowing what happened to him. It was really horrible - they still don't know where he is and what happened. I would never, ever allow any dog I owned to chase wildlife. Maybe you can appeal to your ex's conscience, by telling him he is putting her life at risk. (Quite aside from the disgraceful behavior of allowing a dog to chase wildlife).
Absolutely would never allow a dog chase wildlife...for all the above reasons, and the distress it causes the deer/cat/badger. We have deer here and have to keep our older rescue on a long line for this reason. I was just chatting to my boss who used to have 5 dogs. 3 were shot on the spot when they managed to get into a wildlife reserve. When his father went round to collect the collars, it was the only time he saw him cry. Maybe you could signpost your ex to this forum? Or email him an article? I think though you are both doing an excellent job sharing the care of Amber, it must be hard at times.
This has literally made me gasp Karen... I have a chaser of deer ,rabbits and squirrels....it's completely my fault ,with more experience and a better understanding of my dog I could have done better as I CAN call him off birds and water fowl ...but we never improved from there.He has to be managed very carefully when we are in the UK and I would rather have him on a long line forever than put him at any risk. To Ambersmum,sounds like you are doing a great job in the situation you all find yourselves ....you have my sympathies ,I could write you a novel about my battles with my Husband and Dexter's behaviour. He supports me now but in the early days we had some right rucks,it's hard when you aren't on the same page and if I'm honest it's impossible to achieve if you aren't both pulling together ......in our story I've had a partner who thinks it's ok to allow,rabbit and squirrel chases because' he loves it and he's a dog' yep ,right on both counts there but that doesn't make chasing right.When I finally start all over again with a puppy ,( well I won't be choosing one with such a high Drive next time for starters!) this will be a huge priority for me. Fiona had a pertinent point about your recall ....if you can't get your ex on board at least see if he can cooperate by not sabotaging the great behaviours ( Good recall ) you have in place already......did I mention my Husband is banned from all whistle usage
Firstly I doubt there's a dog owner on the planet that hasn't had their dog chase wildlife whether it's "perfectly" trained or not, that's if they are prepared to own up. Charlie is our rescue Labrador x Pointer that we adopted at 9 months, he was an absconder and likely chased wildlife, he still does on occasions, but we do our very, very best to prevent it. I sat my husband down and said that if we were not training from the same page I wasn't prepared to carry on, he agreed. I know this is very difficult in your situation. We bought Total Recall, a long training line, whistle, shed loads of cooked chicken and set to work 7 days a week for 3 very long hard years and we have 4 children and another dog We also trained a stop whistle which he's OKish with but we still continue to train it. We didn't even have a holiday we were so committed to Charlie's recall training amongst other training. He is 6 years old now and by no means perfect but much improved, we manage his behaviour area by area and he has off lead exercise every day. I'm very concerned and sad about dogs being shot for chasing deer which I don't agree with, but I can't find anything in law that says this is allowed as it is not with pheasants. I can only find livestock, cows, sheep, horses etc. law. Some of which states farmers do not have a right to shoot dogs and can face prosecution by the dog owner. I witnessed a neighbour's Labrador and a Flat Coat chase down and kill a Muntjac a couple of weeks ago, it was horrific. I was in tears, the owner was less upset than I was because he is used to his dogs behaving that way, I did have a 'word' with him. Being used to this behaviour is awful and something we were not prepared to accept from Charlie so we worked at it, he now has a good verbal and whistle recall. I am sure you can find a way to tackle this problem and keep Amber safe and trained because you both love her.
Please don't let him chase wildlife! I know you aren't but I really hope you can get through to your ex! My friend's 15 week old puppy was recently stomped on by a moose and paralyzed. They had to put him down 3 days after the accident as his injuries were just too severe
