My 11 month old Chocolate has recently taken to hurling himself at joggers and cyclists if they pass us at close range when we are out for a walk. He is always on a lead so disaster has so far been averted but this completely inappropriate behavior has me completely on edge. I don't think this is an aggressive act per se; probably another example of his boisterous and overly enthusiastic adolescent temperament, but clearly a behavior trait that must be curbed tout suite. Are there any suggestions as to how he can be dissuaded from this dangerous practise? Davyd
Hi Davyd and welcome to the forum Your boy may be leaping at the cyclists and joggers for a range of reasons (wants to chase, or say hello, or he's frightened by them...sounds like he is excited rather than scared though). Either way the best approach to dealing with it is the same. Ideally, you'd enlist the help of some friends who can play the role of joggers and cyclists (not all at the same time). Arm yourself with about half a kilo of top quality treats (raw mince, cut up roast chicken, cheese). Have a cycling friend ride up and down a path. You and your dog should position yourselves at whatever distance your dog can tolerate without getting excited (a good guide is to go for a distance at which he can still oay attention to you and follow basic cues like 'sit' but he's still aware of the bike). That might be 20 or 100 metres away - the right distance to start at will be determined totally by your dog. Basically, have your friend ride back and forth slowly (not getting any closer to you, or getting any faster) while you give your dog rewards for sitting quietly or for responding well to any other cues you give him (like looking at you on cue). Once you've spent a minute doing that, move a step or two closer to where the bike is. You are rewarding him for not chasing and leaping and for being controlled around the bike. If he starts to get excited then go a step back and move further away. It is important not to try to progress too fast. Keep going with this exercise till you can be pretty close to the bike without your dog moving or getting excited. This entire time the bike should be going slowly (even just being pushed along if need be). Once you've nailed that, so back to your original distance and increase the speed of the bike. Gradually work closer to the bike. Then go back to the start of the exercise and make the speed faster again. Every time you make the bike faster you are making it harder, so it's important to go back to the larger distance so you're not making it hard on all dimensions as once, if that makes sense. You might need to do the above gradually, over a number of sessions. Be generous with your treats. Repeat the same concept with friends jogging. Ideally you'd not expose him to the 'real thing' until you've made good enough progress with the friends in the set-up situations.
Hi Davyd and welcome. Agree 100% with Rachael. My two would do similar, through defensiveness rather than excitement. I wasn't able to do any set-ups, but that's the ideal, as she described. For me, I kept my eyes peeled for any opportunity to train against a real-world person and did as much of the same as she suggested as possible without being able to control the other person. A couple of months and LOTS of treats later, and they're not intimidated by these things anymore. In fact, yesterday, there were two kids playing on their bikes on the road outside. Bikes plus kids. Wow. As we passed (I took them out one at a time), both just looked, then looked at me, and we carried on our merry way. The method does work, but it takes a bit of time, especially for those first stages. It may take a bit longer if it's excitement rather than fear, but it will come. Good luck
Very good advice above , Bella has also just started gravitating towards and chasing bikes and runners at 11 months ...... Ahhhhhhhh, best try and take some of this advice myself. Good luck!!!
Hi Meg was the same with runners, kids, dogs people anybody really. We worked very hard on our nice " meet and greet". We did lots of training at class with distractions and lots of walks with many distractions and very high value treats. She would sit with me whilst the distraction went past. It took some perseverance and practice !! Now 18 months she is awesome and trustworthy with pretty much all situations when off or on lead. Hard work is the answer
Thanks very much Rachael. This makes real sense to me and we will start right away. Everyone tells us that their chocolate took a long time to mature but that around the age of 2 everything came together. He's such a great dog in spite of some unacceptable behaviour I know that investing the time to overcome these behaviours will be well worth it.
You've got some great advice here, so nothing more to add except to keep at it and let us know how it goes. Sometimes it's amazing how quickly they catch on to something when there is a food reward involved..
