Really hoping someone can give me some advise! I have a beautiful 22 month old lab girl who's been with me since last August. She's been well brought up but hadn't lived with cats before. She's much better with them now than when she first came but will still chase them if they start to run. Unfortunately she's also discovered rabbits and gets really excited when she smells or sees them. As we live out in the countryside where there are oodles of them around us this has become a big problem. I have to keep her on a lead or long line and even then it's really hard to walk her as she loses all focus and pulls like a steam train. She's good on lead around town and I've done quite a bit or training with her and taken her to a couple of obedience classes but this is really getting me down. I've read both the "Chase" and "Stop" books but they seem like 2 totally different approaches and I have read up on LAT but can't quite figure out how to put it into practice. Has anyone else had this problem and sorted it successfully and if so how? I've had dogs all my life including Springer X's but haven't had such a determined chaser before.
No help from me, just buckets of sympathy. Coco, nerl is a chaser of small furries given a chance. I have trained a stop-whistle and aim to be able to use this, but it seems like a huge mountain to climb at the moment.
Every time Maisy sees a cat or pigeon, duck etc. I divert her attention to me and treat her, get her to sit and wait with a really yummy treat. I talk to her and keep her attention until it is gone then reward her for the wait/stay/sit. She is slowly but surely losing interest in little creatures, she even ignored a rat the other day which ran away. However, I don't know if we will get to the point where she would not chase something quickly running a way from her 100%. I am sure you will find some good tips on this forum and lots of advice. Good luck.
First step is prevent your girl chasing the cats and reward her for not chasing -keep her on a house lead around the cats if necessary. I'm not sure which two books you are referring to but it would not be unusual for them to have different approaches. There is more than one way to train or modify behaviour. Atthe end of the day we have to choose the method which we feel will work best for us and then use it consistently.
Thanks so much for your replies. @edzbird how do you go about training a stop whistle? If nothing else it would be something new to teach her!@Jojo83 I am very careful when the cats are around and she is a lot better but still a work in progress. She's pretty good around the cats with the longline on but also knows when its not on!!! The books are Chase by Clarissa Von Reinhardt and Stop by David Ryan, a police dog handler. One advocates no chasing of anything ever and the other to get them so interested in chasing a toy or ball that it overrides everything else! Also, to keep the dog away from any sight or smell of the original prey target. As I have a pair of rabbits that have taken up residence in our little field in full view of the back garden that's not so practical! @Shaz82 it sounds like Maisie is making good progress with your method. Like Jojo says I need to choose a method and be consistent!
I haven't got any instant solutions either, but I rely on 'leave it' and good recall for my two. The odd thing is that, unlike Tuppence, Wispa has virtually no recall response in the garden: she just looks nonchalantly in my direction if I call her in and then continues to potter until she's ready to come in - although she did stop chasing a squirrel a few days ago when I shouted 'leave it'. However, in the woods it's completely different; her recall from small furry creatures can be fantastic (i hope I don't regret saying this!). For example, she shot off into the undergrowth after a rabbit yesterday evening, swiftly followed by Tuppence, but immediately spun round and came back as soon as I called. No treats to hand, just lots of 'good girl' and she trotted on to continue the walk very happily, with no further rabbit distractions.
@SallyH I used the methods here http://totallygundogs.com/stop-whistle-1-whistle-sit-at-heel/ There are 3 sections.
I have read both Stop and Chase. I have a prey-driven boy who has caught and killed rabbits. With him, I used LAT principles (if you need, I’m sure someone will link to the thread for me, I’m in a rush) and rewarded him with his highest value reinforcer, a thrown ball. This has been very powerful for us and, last spring/summer, I had him at the point where he’d see a rabbit and look back to me for his ball. The ball is not higher value than the chase of a rabbit (how could it be?) but with repetition, it becomes his default behaviour to look to me. Maybe someone could link to that article on reinforcement history in horses? I’ll have to revisit the training once I’m back in Spain with him and we start early morning running again, as we’ve had a break over the winter, but I’m confident he’ll pick it up again quickly.
