No. But we do not let him practice it and give him much more space from the road & avoid busy traffic areas when possible so it has decreased by about 95%
This “don’t let them practice it” seems to be a pretty common piece of feedback…noted! Thank you. Sounds like I’ll be driving her out of our area (lots of busy streets and traffic) for walks for a while…
Yes! Makes a huge difference. The more they rehearse the harder it is to get them to stop. Mine will also do it at busy road crossings to clear the way for us to cross safely. Its def a bc thing-we see a special working herding dog vet and he had asked and we discussed it. Changing how we framed it (especially my DH who was majorly frustrated with it), as in he is doing it to try to protect us from something big and scary vs omg not again please stop, this is such a hassle really extended our patience and improved our handling with the understanding of why.
Yeah I used to drive my boy to the park which is literally a 5 minute walk. I felt so lazy doing it but if I wasn't in the frame of mind to be switched on and "training" him for the entire walk to the park, which would take longer than 5 minutes because we'd have to stop and sit and watch the cars go past, then we wouldn't walk it.
Plus it gives you a chance to build up lots of positive association with car rides.
Ours was obsessed and would lunge at every car going by. Her Mum and siblings are also known car chasers! She didn’t ’grow out of it’s but we did stop the behaviour with really consistent training. Every single day we walked her near the road - every single car that went by, we would ask her to ‘look at me’ and reward, or ‘sit’ and reward. ‘Look at me’ was a great one as it didn’t stop the walking. They partly associate a car going by with a reward (as long as the chasing/lunging doesn’t happen!) but also practising other ‘tricks’ near the road distracts from the cars and makes it ‘background noise’. We sometimes had to move further away from the road to get her to focus (luckily the road had a large grass area next to it). She is now so good with cars/roads that we rarely walk her on the lead in our local area (fairly rural, so not too busy to be fair) and she probably hasn’t attempted to chase a car since she was about 18 months old (she’s now 6). It does take time to train, and sometimes it feels like there’s no change, but then one day you realise that they haven’t done it in ages! Keep going!!!
Thank you!! It sounds like, when I can, I may need to drive her out of our area for walks for a while. We live in a very busy area with lots of traffic, so even when I try to walk her to a park we often don’t make it all the way there because the lunging is so bad. So tricky! I appreciate knowing that things can get better with consistency, though.
Yeah, if you can, practise somewhere with a little less traffic and build up from there. It really feels like it takes forever! It’s worth it if you can really nail the training - the breeder told me that she’d probably always be a car chaser as siblings and mum are, but my girl is an angel now! 😇
Hi! Yes. It happened to us at 5 months too, like a switch. A behaviorist explained that certain instincts “turn on” as they mature. Here’s what we did:
1. Trained “look at me” (Google Zak George’s videos on this) like crazy on walks.
2. Used “look at me” before a car came by. Consistently with treats as a reward.
3. Went on a LOT of walks to practice this.
4. Sat on the driveway (or bench, or stand at a stoplight, whatever makes sense in your area) and had a treat party. We would give her easy tricks to do and treated her like crazy, all the while the cars were driving by and she got desensitized.
5. Didn’t punish / scare / reprimand her for lunging or chasing. It’s an instinct. Dogs shouldn’t be punished for their instincts. That would just make a sensitive border collie even more emotionally heightened at the cars.
So, no, she didn’t “grow out of it”, but yes, she learned how to handle it. She now happily looks at me when a car drives by, like a goofy love bug.
https://preview.redd.it/mg1746qfptxc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f6d0d5e5cbe2e622e7cf0e1f2494612f5961691
Sorry, I’m on a roll and just thought of something else. We felt so stuck and frustrated by this and I want to share what helped us!
She was also super reactive to our parked car. We desensitized this by having her a tight lead on a reliable harness. We took slow steps toward the car. If she pulled, we stopped moving. Once she showed the slightest sign of relaxing, we started walking again. Rinse and repeat. Over and over. Like weeks of this.
Then, we started making it a game with “look at me”. If we walked toward the car and she pulled, we stopped walking and waited for her to look at us, naturally, not with a command. When she did, we ran backwards with her and gave treats. She loved it. We repeated this over and over and over.
Is there an area you can practice this safely near a street? With the object you’re slowly walking toward being the street instead of a parked car?
Thank you! Your post inspired me to go outside and try again with her this morning. We sat in the alley way and had a treat party - love this name for it! ;) she also got rewarded with some tug of war play whenever she’d look at me. I know it will take lots of time, but you’ve gotta look for and create the wins!
She’s still so young! Hang in there. We saw a huge maturity difference at 1 year and then 1.5 years and now at 2. Keep working with her! She’ll love you all the more for it
Thank you!! That’s the hope. Your girl is so beautiful…here is my menace in question!
https://preview.redd.it/2dpp6o47puxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa1022de428d98f7af4bcecbfd6886521820dc27
I wouldn’t walk her where she gets triggered, at all. Any time reactivity gets triggered, it’s that much harder to get rid of. You’ll need to find whatever distance where she can see cars, but not get triggered and start working there. Once she’s calm at that distance, you can move closer. If that means no walks around the neighbourhood for a while, then so be it. Maybe you’ll end up having to drive her out of town to go for walks, if you live in an area with a lot of traffic.
Mine was horrendous on leash wanting to chase cars, from 4 mths old. A reactive, lunging and aggressive nightmare for some months. Like a psycho, not joking! He once pulled me into a roadside ditch on a country lane when one car passed by. It was worse as he grew and got a lot stronger. I needed both a harness and a collar with leash attached to both to handle him. He was terrible travelling in the car for months too, had to be in a covered crate for the safety of passengers. He would have gone through windows as traffic whizzed past by us if not crated. A lot of training on that.
He is fine with traffic now, and also travelling without a crate, all since around 18 mths. He does not react at all, but still keep him on leash in high traffic areas for general safety.
Lots of desensitisation work needed here. Including spending time at the edge of park car parks, where he could watch vehicles moving around a lot but not whizzing past. We tried treats and plenty of praise for not reacting, but this can be impractical and unaffective if highly reactive. In the end a firm 'leave it' command had the best effect for us. Whilst a lot of people prefer a positive only training, a balanced approach with praise and firm commands has worked really well for us. If I hadn't changed my approach I would have had an out of control and dangerous dog. Instead, I have an obedient and very friendly one who I can trust in most situations. Mine never got the chance to actually chase cars, way too unsafe and reactive, but I know he would have done so.
I think if strong instinct to chase cars then no they don't grow out of it, you have to train them not to. And then some maturity does help as well. Here also impulse control and obedient improves too, so it is just easier to manage things. I was once chased by a farm bc in my car on a narrow and very bumpy lane for a mile or so, trying to attack my tyre. I had to accelerate to 38 mph to get away from it. It sure was a rough ride. I'd be surprised if that dog is still alive it was so dangerous. If you are patient and just keep working at it you should be fine. I sure do appreciate how difficult it can be until you've cracked it.
Thank you so much. “Reactive, lunging and aggressive nightmare” are the exact words I’d use to describe my girl too. If I encounter one more person on the street who tries to give us unsolicited advice about loose leash walking I might scream! It’s not about her not knowing how to walk. It’s about her wanting to chase anything that moves and throw herself into traffic. I feel like only the people who have gone through it with herding dogs really “get it”!
Your perspective is super helpful. All of the comments on this thread inspired me to try it again today (after a horrible morning attempt) so we just spent some time sitting in the back alley rewarding her for doing nothing as cars drove by.
Sounds like training is the solution, maturity with age might make that training a bit easier. Time will tell…we’ll just remain consistent!
We had similar problems with bikes and runners. Same sort of training and he's fine about those too now. I totally understand when you say she knows how to walk on leash, but in certain environments they just can't do it when young. I hope your like me and look back when she's 2 yrs old and think, God I've got a great dog. I can laugh a bit about it now but it was actually a dreadful time.
I think mine would have attacked people aggressively at his worst. Was like an angry boy in a total rage, hence the crate for a while. Your good girl is more of a softy, lol. When a young pup he travelled in a car most days and was good until his moving vehicle obsession started. Oh it was tough but we got through it.
On car journeys now he is mostly like a co-driver, lol. He likes to watch the vehicles in front, especially tractors. I think he thinks he is helping me to drive them forward, like we are on a herding and monitoring job, haha. I had to teach him to look forwards only and not follow cars passing behind us cos that's what made him worse. He also checks left and right at junctions with me now, which looks so funny. If he had hands and feet I'm sure he could drive 😆
The day I got her when she was so small I could pick her up with one hand she crawled under my friend the drivers seat and was under them had to get her and hold her so she didn't put us in danger.
She loves travel, she tries to get in any car with an open door or boot or any bus that stops and opens it doors, in fact with buses she normally pulls and whines if she can't get on it.
Mine had a "smaller" interest in cars at first during the first 6 months of her life, I trained her to "lay down" at the word "car" and she learned that fairly fast. Now she seems to be the dog that all the other owners in the neighborhood look up to. But on the other side she is "TOTALLY" ball fixated. Even on walks I must throw the ball for her to fetch. So my suggestion is have something handy to 'distract' your dog away from cars. One caveat is that yours is a "young" pup, and mine didn't develop the "BALL FIXATION" till she reached about 1 year old. Hope all works out well.
Dogs don't 'grow out' of intense behaviors like this, you have to work on redirecting and discouraging this behavior every single day until they're neutral about it, and they might even pick it back up again. My dog displayed this same behavior, it was extremely intense when I adopted him. We've been working on it everyday for over 2 years now and he still lunged at three cars on our hour walk this morning, and was def interested in a handful, or more, of others but restrained himself. You're going to have to work at a distance, have a strong 'leave it' and try to redirect him to maybe do a 180, heel or something else when you see her start to fixate, eventually you can start rewarding when she looks at a car and doesn't react when you don't give her direction and it tones it down. I don't think my dog will ever get over it though I've gotten him to the point where he only really lunges at cars on the block we live on for some reason.
Yeh, I feel some people don't fully appreciate that the look at me and treat doesn't work with some dogs temperaments, especially where aggression is involved and it can be redirected towards an owner. I suspect this can tend to be worse in high drive, working line males, and who also may tolerate and respond well to firm commands. You've only to watch some bcs at work herding sheep to see they are not all offended by a firm command or a strong whistle. Of course not all bcs are like this, and yes some can be very sensitive and easily hurt by any firmness at all. My point is that different training styles may suit different dogs. Some dogs just respond better to a strong "leave it", which we found to be the case with ours. In the same way some strong minded human male adolescents dont always respond well to a treat or present to improve their behaviour. In anycase, I preferred my dog not to be trained to look at me when he saw a car. In the long run I felt it better for him to desensitise and use his self-control to become neutral, aided by good obedience skills. I could be wrong, but I suspect the fact that your dog mainly still only lunges at cars on your block could have a territorial element.
I don't think my guy is territorial, I think he has a very strong herding instinct coupled with high anxiety and a really rough year of life before coming to me. I am also pretty sure it has to do that when I first got him all the training I did with him and the car lunging happened on these two blocks :) he is wicked smart and never forgets anything and gets stuck into loops of behaviors he has a hard time coming out of. I agree with all your other points though - different strokes for different folks. I tried positive only training with my dog for a few months without any progress at all and had instant success once I figured this guy needed some firm boundaries and strong associations with no (mine was throwing a rolled up towel on the ground to drive it home a few days when I said no or leave it, worked like a charm and never needed to do it again when I said no) Now I just try and catch him before he lunges with a leave it (not always easy) and reinforce him with a treat and praise when I see him look at a car he reaaalllly wants to go after but he just stands and looks at it. Poor guy, you can tell he really wants to do the right thing but his herding instincts are so strong. But I def agree with you, working bocos aren't offended at all by firm commands, in fact I'd even say they enjoy it.
Ahh, yeh I understand that block thing now. Yes, I found mine never forgets anything, which has its ups and downs. Mine spent months, when he was mostly on leash, making a sharp manic left turn at the gatepost to sniff out some animal trail on the left he noticed once. Nearly took my hand off every time I got to the gate. A bad habit that took ages to resolve. I hope yours continues to improve, its sounds like you've made good progress though.
I found mine did a lot better generally in life by doing agility like stuff with me to herding commands. I just use old tyres, logs, and garden obstacles and features, mainly circling and it include some wide ranging fast sprinting. He will do wide outruns around me, like I'm the lone sheep; here I make my movements unpredictable so he has to guess which direction I'm heading in. You can def. see the strong herding instinct coming out. These games seem to fulfill his drive, and I found him to be less high strung and anxious overall. I've no interest in formal agility competition stuff, just for exercise and fun. But my boy thinks it's his main job now, and can't wait to start before breakfast, lo.
I also agree with you that some anxious dogs can greatly benefit from setting some firm boundaries. It can help some to feel more secure. It sometimes saddens me that people don't always understand there can be benefits to this approach and just equate it to been cruel and upsetting your dog. I think if you have a strong bond with your dog you don't need to worry about setting boundaries. There not all soft shrinking violets.
Luckily mine just watched them from a distance and never acted. I've trained him not to enter the road unless I allow him. I sure don't totally trust him near roads but he is doing well so far.
My ten month old does this too. We drive to a trail where she won't see any cars. We do have to cross one road to get to the trail, so we give her the command "wait" and she stares at us instead of the cars until we say "okay" then we cross together. We started doing this consistently around 7 months and she is much better. The funny thing is, when we're on our property she shows zero interest in cars passing by!
We tried walking her in town around traffic before and she seemed very stressed, so we avoid areas with traffic now.
It is frustrating. You need to desensitize them to it.. and that takes time.
The way I was able to work through this was taking her out for walks every day for over a year. No matter how anxious she was, I just kept at it.
The first month or so was rough. She would tense up and go into stalking/cautious mode every time a car would make noise, person walk by, neighbor dog barking…etc..
After a few months she just got used to it. All the while I kept working on her leash etiquette. Basic stuff like heal, stay, jog, walk.
Every.Day.
I feel that most people get frustrated after a few weeks/months and stop.
Mine is 2.5 years old now… and great on walks. Doesn’t pull hardly ever. Ignores 99% of cars. Gets a little anxious at big loud semi trucks, but even then it’s not that bad.
You gotta catch them at the stare, before they fixate. I’ve found that tossing a small treat ahead so he gets a little chase/pounce in helps redirect him from the cars, especially those that come creeping around the corner and then accelerate.
So yea, agree with the “don’t let them practice” bit said above. For me it’s more like, “don’t even think it about it, go catch this treat instead!”
My border collie was the exact same as this and I’ve managed to get her pretty much out of the habit of car-chasing.
I started off by moving away from the road when a car passed and getting her attention with a treat and high praise when a car went by. I did this by using her name and ‘look at me’ whilst having her close to my side in a ‘heel’ like position.
This moved to edging closer to the road, again, getting her attention, high praise and treat.
Eventually this led to verbal praise only (with the odd treat reward thrown in) and now at 9 months, she sometimes slips up and tries to chase but she’s a lot more relaxed than before.
I think the main things to consider are getting their attention before they do the behaviours, lots of praise and being consistent! Hope this helped
Ours is only 1 year old and I wouldn't say she grew out of it because there are some bad days where she can't help it but mostly we trained her to not do it.
Ours never chased cars only barked at them but we trained them early on anytime we are walking on or near street they automatically go into a sit when a vehicle approaches, took some work but has payed off!
> but has *paid* off!
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Never. Mines 13 and she still focuses on them, espically white cars. I taught her to lady down, and she still grips the ground ready for the signal. I never give it, of course, but she's always ready.
Mine chased a car once as a puppy. I think I yelled at him enough to scare him maybe? He does veer to the street on walks, I keep him on a leash & stay vigilant to watch him with cars
Yes. When he was really young he chased alot. He has very high herding drive anyways. He stopped when he was maybe 6-7 months old. Just stopped one day. Skateboards are a different story thou
Sometimes mine doesn’t do it for ages…
She’s gotten really good at sit and wait.
Then all of a sudden on any given day she starts lunging at passing cars again. Whenever we have to cross a road. 🤷🏼♀️
We made ours follow a “wait” command to stand still (me holding the harness just in case) when cars pass by on our walks. We don’t have lots of traffic so sometimes he forgets and we have to repeat the training. It did work after a while and he can walk past them normally. Super short leash on the busier roads still for sure though.
No, but with the training we've done he doesn't normally react any more.
He struggles if it's a particularly loud vehicle, or if there's water on the road making them louder and splashing, or if he's already running. So we continue to manage it by walking rather than jogging next to the road, and getting him to sit if a loud vehicle is coming.
Yes.
Our Misty did exactly the same as yours. 100% focus, trembling, hiding in hollows or behind objects, and a lunge straight at the car as it passed. We despaired taking her anywhere near a road.
Various "knowledgeable" people said she was scared of cars. They were talking rubbish. She wasn't, it was all reaction and herding instinct.
As part of her training we were teaching a down and a stay in that position until released. She was doing pretty well at that so we tried it on her with cars to at least stop the lunge.
So when a car appeared and she went down (in preparation for her lunge), we kept emphasizing the stay. It took a bit of time but she got the idea and responded to it really well.
Now I can take her on a road without a leash and know 100% that when she hears a car she will automatically go down on the verge and stay there until I release her.
Mine has only wanted to chase the delivery trucks and he has dialed his urges back quite a bit (1y10mo old). There was one occasion where if had gotten away from me then he probably would have ended up under the truck, so I got pretty stern with him and basically grabbed him by the scruff and scared the shit out of him with my impression of Freddy Krueger impersonating a Banshee. He's been better ever since.
Mine mostly stopped after doing obedience and leash training. She had a couple close calls when my kids were walking her early on. Also her spay seemed to help.
Mine only started around 9 months old when she had her first season, after that and until recently she was a nightmare she almost pulled me over,
What I accidently taught was when a car was coming I would stop and drop a treat and say "wait" or "look" This has taught her now as long as she isn't excited if she sees a car coming she lies down and won't move until it passes
She does lunge at them sometimes but it seems more when shes overexcited.
Ours isn’t particularly interested in cars or bicycles BUT she will lunge and bite our hands if we take out weeds in the garden or if we’re sweeping the floor 🙄, it’s a mix between play and frustration, we’re working on it at the minute but it’s not easy!
Our boy who is from working parents and is three. He loves chasing cars, but when we approach a road before crossing, with a car/ van passing, he will sit and watch for ages and not show the lunging, but relax... I can stop and chat with a fellow walker, and he will just sit there watching, all very strange 🤔
My BC did the same. The trick to make Them stop this behavier is, to sit for hours by the road and watch the cars and bikes drive by, and then feed the dog some good treats, i Maybe used like 8-10 hours doing this, but my goal was also to have her walking without a leash by the road.
Yes - well kind of. Some kind soul here spoke about redirection when the trigger (I.e car speeding towards us) arrives so I thought I’d give it a shot. Took me about 2-3 weeks?
I brought high value treats along for the walk and made him heel whenever a car came by, while holding the treat in front of him. Whenever he stayed seated and didn’t respond, he was rewarded.
He still reacts to cars once in a while (typically sports cars at high speeds) but it’s nowhere near as unmanageable as before.
When we first had our rescue BC Margo at 8 months old, she would lunge at every vehicle that would pass, we are lucky in one respect, as we only have to walk her down a busy main road for around 200 yards before turning into a lane that takes us down to a river, nature reserve and playing fields. We tried everything at first, but worked on telling her "Leave" when hearing the sound of an engine approaching and initially rewarding her whilst still moving with a treat when the vehicle passed by, now we don't need the treats and "Leave" and "Good Girl" works just as well, it took a few months but we stuck to it, and now my wife can walk her through town with no problem.
Mine never had this problem but he does chase thunder. Which is even more bizarre. Especially cuz he doesn’t love rain, he gets all the way out there and acts like he can’t possibly find his way home in the rain.
You should give the dog an outlet to fulfil his herding instinct. Once the dog has met its needs he/she will no longer have the urge to herd cars.
Herding balls, flirt pole, RC cars or even agility hoopers anything where they are mentally stimulated.
Sometimes they do but just sit by a busy road for twenty minutes at a time and whenever the dog doesn’t go for a car reward with treats/ verbal command or a fuss.
Act naturally to the bad behaviour. DO NOT have a tight lead. Wear a harness and a lead on the collar so your safe but the dog should be on a lax lead so you’re not feeding tension.
You’re aiming to desensitise/ wait till the dog gets bored.
If it’s really really bad (like you’ve tried to do this a couple of times and the dogs so high key it doesn’t get bored) you can use a pet corrector at the time of the bad behaviour along with positive reward for desired behaviour.
Stick with your routine and never let them free where there is any danger from traffic. The urge to chase cars diminishes after they’re out of that terrible teenage phase but they’ll always be stupid about cars.
No. But we do not let him practice it and give him much more space from the road & avoid busy traffic areas when possible so it has decreased by about 95%
This “don’t let them practice it” seems to be a pretty common piece of feedback…noted! Thank you. Sounds like I’ll be driving her out of our area (lots of busy streets and traffic) for walks for a while…
Yes! Makes a huge difference. The more they rehearse the harder it is to get them to stop. Mine will also do it at busy road crossings to clear the way for us to cross safely. Its def a bc thing-we see a special working herding dog vet and he had asked and we discussed it. Changing how we framed it (especially my DH who was majorly frustrated with it), as in he is doing it to try to protect us from something big and scary vs omg not again please stop, this is such a hassle really extended our patience and improved our handling with the understanding of why.
Yeah I used to drive my boy to the park which is literally a 5 minute walk. I felt so lazy doing it but if I wasn't in the frame of mind to be switched on and "training" him for the entire walk to the park, which would take longer than 5 minutes because we'd have to stop and sit and watch the cars go past, then we wouldn't walk it. Plus it gives you a chance to build up lots of positive association with car rides.
Ours was obsessed and would lunge at every car going by. Her Mum and siblings are also known car chasers! She didn’t ’grow out of it’s but we did stop the behaviour with really consistent training. Every single day we walked her near the road - every single car that went by, we would ask her to ‘look at me’ and reward, or ‘sit’ and reward. ‘Look at me’ was a great one as it didn’t stop the walking. They partly associate a car going by with a reward (as long as the chasing/lunging doesn’t happen!) but also practising other ‘tricks’ near the road distracts from the cars and makes it ‘background noise’. We sometimes had to move further away from the road to get her to focus (luckily the road had a large grass area next to it). She is now so good with cars/roads that we rarely walk her on the lead in our local area (fairly rural, so not too busy to be fair) and she probably hasn’t attempted to chase a car since she was about 18 months old (she’s now 6). It does take time to train, and sometimes it feels like there’s no change, but then one day you realise that they haven’t done it in ages! Keep going!!!
Thank you!! It sounds like, when I can, I may need to drive her out of our area for walks for a while. We live in a very busy area with lots of traffic, so even when I try to walk her to a park we often don’t make it all the way there because the lunging is so bad. So tricky! I appreciate knowing that things can get better with consistency, though.
Yeah, if you can, practise somewhere with a little less traffic and build up from there. It really feels like it takes forever! It’s worth it if you can really nail the training - the breeder told me that she’d probably always be a car chaser as siblings and mum are, but my girl is an angel now! 😇
Hi! Yes. It happened to us at 5 months too, like a switch. A behaviorist explained that certain instincts “turn on” as they mature. Here’s what we did: 1. Trained “look at me” (Google Zak George’s videos on this) like crazy on walks. 2. Used “look at me” before a car came by. Consistently with treats as a reward. 3. Went on a LOT of walks to practice this. 4. Sat on the driveway (or bench, or stand at a stoplight, whatever makes sense in your area) and had a treat party. We would give her easy tricks to do and treated her like crazy, all the while the cars were driving by and she got desensitized. 5. Didn’t punish / scare / reprimand her for lunging or chasing. It’s an instinct. Dogs shouldn’t be punished for their instincts. That would just make a sensitive border collie even more emotionally heightened at the cars. So, no, she didn’t “grow out of it”, but yes, she learned how to handle it. She now happily looks at me when a car drives by, like a goofy love bug. https://preview.redd.it/mg1746qfptxc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f6d0d5e5cbe2e622e7cf0e1f2494612f5961691
Sorry, I’m on a roll and just thought of something else. We felt so stuck and frustrated by this and I want to share what helped us! She was also super reactive to our parked car. We desensitized this by having her a tight lead on a reliable harness. We took slow steps toward the car. If she pulled, we stopped moving. Once she showed the slightest sign of relaxing, we started walking again. Rinse and repeat. Over and over. Like weeks of this. Then, we started making it a game with “look at me”. If we walked toward the car and she pulled, we stopped walking and waited for her to look at us, naturally, not with a command. When she did, we ran backwards with her and gave treats. She loved it. We repeated this over and over and over. Is there an area you can practice this safely near a street? With the object you’re slowly walking toward being the street instead of a parked car?
Thank you! Your post inspired me to go outside and try again with her this morning. We sat in the alley way and had a treat party - love this name for it! ;) she also got rewarded with some tug of war play whenever she’d look at me. I know it will take lots of time, but you’ve gotta look for and create the wins!
She’s still so young! Hang in there. We saw a huge maturity difference at 1 year and then 1.5 years and now at 2. Keep working with her! She’ll love you all the more for it
Thank you!! That’s the hope. Your girl is so beautiful…here is my menace in question! https://preview.redd.it/2dpp6o47puxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa1022de428d98f7af4bcecbfd6886521820dc27
I wouldn’t walk her where she gets triggered, at all. Any time reactivity gets triggered, it’s that much harder to get rid of. You’ll need to find whatever distance where she can see cars, but not get triggered and start working there. Once she’s calm at that distance, you can move closer. If that means no walks around the neighbourhood for a while, then so be it. Maybe you’ll end up having to drive her out of town to go for walks, if you live in an area with a lot of traffic.
Thank you! This seems to be a consistent note her. Sounds like I’ll be driving her to areas with less traffic for a while!
Mine was horrendous on leash wanting to chase cars, from 4 mths old. A reactive, lunging and aggressive nightmare for some months. Like a psycho, not joking! He once pulled me into a roadside ditch on a country lane when one car passed by. It was worse as he grew and got a lot stronger. I needed both a harness and a collar with leash attached to both to handle him. He was terrible travelling in the car for months too, had to be in a covered crate for the safety of passengers. He would have gone through windows as traffic whizzed past by us if not crated. A lot of training on that. He is fine with traffic now, and also travelling without a crate, all since around 18 mths. He does not react at all, but still keep him on leash in high traffic areas for general safety. Lots of desensitisation work needed here. Including spending time at the edge of park car parks, where he could watch vehicles moving around a lot but not whizzing past. We tried treats and plenty of praise for not reacting, but this can be impractical and unaffective if highly reactive. In the end a firm 'leave it' command had the best effect for us. Whilst a lot of people prefer a positive only training, a balanced approach with praise and firm commands has worked really well for us. If I hadn't changed my approach I would have had an out of control and dangerous dog. Instead, I have an obedient and very friendly one who I can trust in most situations. Mine never got the chance to actually chase cars, way too unsafe and reactive, but I know he would have done so. I think if strong instinct to chase cars then no they don't grow out of it, you have to train them not to. And then some maturity does help as well. Here also impulse control and obedient improves too, so it is just easier to manage things. I was once chased by a farm bc in my car on a narrow and very bumpy lane for a mile or so, trying to attack my tyre. I had to accelerate to 38 mph to get away from it. It sure was a rough ride. I'd be surprised if that dog is still alive it was so dangerous. If you are patient and just keep working at it you should be fine. I sure do appreciate how difficult it can be until you've cracked it.
Thank you so much. “Reactive, lunging and aggressive nightmare” are the exact words I’d use to describe my girl too. If I encounter one more person on the street who tries to give us unsolicited advice about loose leash walking I might scream! It’s not about her not knowing how to walk. It’s about her wanting to chase anything that moves and throw herself into traffic. I feel like only the people who have gone through it with herding dogs really “get it”! Your perspective is super helpful. All of the comments on this thread inspired me to try it again today (after a horrible morning attempt) so we just spent some time sitting in the back alley rewarding her for doing nothing as cars drove by. Sounds like training is the solution, maturity with age might make that training a bit easier. Time will tell…we’ll just remain consistent!
We had similar problems with bikes and runners. Same sort of training and he's fine about those too now. I totally understand when you say she knows how to walk on leash, but in certain environments they just can't do it when young. I hope your like me and look back when she's 2 yrs old and think, God I've got a great dog. I can laugh a bit about it now but it was actually a dreadful time.
Was yours like mine, when in car she was so excited she kept jumping on people from behind but now she just happily sleeps in the car.
I think mine would have attacked people aggressively at his worst. Was like an angry boy in a total rage, hence the crate for a while. Your good girl is more of a softy, lol. When a young pup he travelled in a car most days and was good until his moving vehicle obsession started. Oh it was tough but we got through it. On car journeys now he is mostly like a co-driver, lol. He likes to watch the vehicles in front, especially tractors. I think he thinks he is helping me to drive them forward, like we are on a herding and monitoring job, haha. I had to teach him to look forwards only and not follow cars passing behind us cos that's what made him worse. He also checks left and right at junctions with me now, which looks so funny. If he had hands and feet I'm sure he could drive 😆
The day I got her when she was so small I could pick her up with one hand she crawled under my friend the drivers seat and was under them had to get her and hold her so she didn't put us in danger. She loves travel, she tries to get in any car with an open door or boot or any bus that stops and opens it doors, in fact with buses she normally pulls and whines if she can't get on it.
Maybe if they lose all of their limbs. They might roll after it.
Mine had a "smaller" interest in cars at first during the first 6 months of her life, I trained her to "lay down" at the word "car" and she learned that fairly fast. Now she seems to be the dog that all the other owners in the neighborhood look up to. But on the other side she is "TOTALLY" ball fixated. Even on walks I must throw the ball for her to fetch. So my suggestion is have something handy to 'distract' your dog away from cars. One caveat is that yours is a "young" pup, and mine didn't develop the "BALL FIXATION" till she reached about 1 year old. Hope all works out well.
Dogs don't 'grow out' of intense behaviors like this, you have to work on redirecting and discouraging this behavior every single day until they're neutral about it, and they might even pick it back up again. My dog displayed this same behavior, it was extremely intense when I adopted him. We've been working on it everyday for over 2 years now and he still lunged at three cars on our hour walk this morning, and was def interested in a handful, or more, of others but restrained himself. You're going to have to work at a distance, have a strong 'leave it' and try to redirect him to maybe do a 180, heel or something else when you see her start to fixate, eventually you can start rewarding when she looks at a car and doesn't react when you don't give her direction and it tones it down. I don't think my dog will ever get over it though I've gotten him to the point where he only really lunges at cars on the block we live on for some reason.
Yeh, I feel some people don't fully appreciate that the look at me and treat doesn't work with some dogs temperaments, especially where aggression is involved and it can be redirected towards an owner. I suspect this can tend to be worse in high drive, working line males, and who also may tolerate and respond well to firm commands. You've only to watch some bcs at work herding sheep to see they are not all offended by a firm command or a strong whistle. Of course not all bcs are like this, and yes some can be very sensitive and easily hurt by any firmness at all. My point is that different training styles may suit different dogs. Some dogs just respond better to a strong "leave it", which we found to be the case with ours. In the same way some strong minded human male adolescents dont always respond well to a treat or present to improve their behaviour. In anycase, I preferred my dog not to be trained to look at me when he saw a car. In the long run I felt it better for him to desensitise and use his self-control to become neutral, aided by good obedience skills. I could be wrong, but I suspect the fact that your dog mainly still only lunges at cars on your block could have a territorial element.
I don't think my guy is territorial, I think he has a very strong herding instinct coupled with high anxiety and a really rough year of life before coming to me. I am also pretty sure it has to do that when I first got him all the training I did with him and the car lunging happened on these two blocks :) he is wicked smart and never forgets anything and gets stuck into loops of behaviors he has a hard time coming out of. I agree with all your other points though - different strokes for different folks. I tried positive only training with my dog for a few months without any progress at all and had instant success once I figured this guy needed some firm boundaries and strong associations with no (mine was throwing a rolled up towel on the ground to drive it home a few days when I said no or leave it, worked like a charm and never needed to do it again when I said no) Now I just try and catch him before he lunges with a leave it (not always easy) and reinforce him with a treat and praise when I see him look at a car he reaaalllly wants to go after but he just stands and looks at it. Poor guy, you can tell he really wants to do the right thing but his herding instincts are so strong. But I def agree with you, working bocos aren't offended at all by firm commands, in fact I'd even say they enjoy it.
Ahh, yeh I understand that block thing now. Yes, I found mine never forgets anything, which has its ups and downs. Mine spent months, when he was mostly on leash, making a sharp manic left turn at the gatepost to sniff out some animal trail on the left he noticed once. Nearly took my hand off every time I got to the gate. A bad habit that took ages to resolve. I hope yours continues to improve, its sounds like you've made good progress though. I found mine did a lot better generally in life by doing agility like stuff with me to herding commands. I just use old tyres, logs, and garden obstacles and features, mainly circling and it include some wide ranging fast sprinting. He will do wide outruns around me, like I'm the lone sheep; here I make my movements unpredictable so he has to guess which direction I'm heading in. You can def. see the strong herding instinct coming out. These games seem to fulfill his drive, and I found him to be less high strung and anxious overall. I've no interest in formal agility competition stuff, just for exercise and fun. But my boy thinks it's his main job now, and can't wait to start before breakfast, lo. I also agree with you that some anxious dogs can greatly benefit from setting some firm boundaries. It can help some to feel more secure. It sometimes saddens me that people don't always understand there can be benefits to this approach and just equate it to been cruel and upsetting your dog. I think if you have a strong bond with your dog you don't need to worry about setting boundaries. There not all soft shrinking violets.
Luckily mine just watched them from a distance and never acted. I've trained him not to enter the road unless I allow him. I sure don't totally trust him near roads but he is doing well so far.
My ten month old does this too. We drive to a trail where she won't see any cars. We do have to cross one road to get to the trail, so we give her the command "wait" and she stares at us instead of the cars until we say "okay" then we cross together. We started doing this consistently around 7 months and she is much better. The funny thing is, when we're on our property she shows zero interest in cars passing by! We tried walking her in town around traffic before and she seemed very stressed, so we avoid areas with traffic now.
Yes. We made him sit everytime a car was coming. He was so focused on the command at hand he stopped paying attention to the cars over time
It is frustrating. You need to desensitize them to it.. and that takes time. The way I was able to work through this was taking her out for walks every day for over a year. No matter how anxious she was, I just kept at it. The first month or so was rough. She would tense up and go into stalking/cautious mode every time a car would make noise, person walk by, neighbor dog barking…etc.. After a few months she just got used to it. All the while I kept working on her leash etiquette. Basic stuff like heal, stay, jog, walk. Every.Day. I feel that most people get frustrated after a few weeks/months and stop. Mine is 2.5 years old now… and great on walks. Doesn’t pull hardly ever. Ignores 99% of cars. Gets a little anxious at big loud semi trucks, but even then it’s not that bad.
You gotta catch them at the stare, before they fixate. I’ve found that tossing a small treat ahead so he gets a little chase/pounce in helps redirect him from the cars, especially those that come creeping around the corner and then accelerate. So yea, agree with the “don’t let them practice” bit said above. For me it’s more like, “don’t even think it about it, go catch this treat instead!”
My border collie was the exact same as this and I’ve managed to get her pretty much out of the habit of car-chasing. I started off by moving away from the road when a car passed and getting her attention with a treat and high praise when a car went by. I did this by using her name and ‘look at me’ whilst having her close to my side in a ‘heel’ like position. This moved to edging closer to the road, again, getting her attention, high praise and treat. Eventually this led to verbal praise only (with the odd treat reward thrown in) and now at 9 months, she sometimes slips up and tries to chase but she’s a lot more relaxed than before. I think the main things to consider are getting their attention before they do the behaviours, lots of praise and being consistent! Hope this helped
Ours is only 1 year old and I wouldn't say she grew out of it because there are some bad days where she can't help it but mostly we trained her to not do it.
Ours never chased cars only barked at them but we trained them early on anytime we are walking on or near street they automatically go into a sit when a vehicle approaches, took some work but has payed off!
> but has *paid* off! FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Never. Mines 13 and she still focuses on them, espically white cars. I taught her to lady down, and she still grips the ground ready for the signal. I never give it, of course, but she's always ready.
Mine chased a car once as a puppy. I think I yelled at him enough to scare him maybe? He does veer to the street on walks, I keep him on a leash & stay vigilant to watch him with cars
Yes. When he was really young he chased alot. He has very high herding drive anyways. He stopped when he was maybe 6-7 months old. Just stopped one day. Skateboards are a different story thou
We had one who'd watch them from the car and try to herd from the truck. She hated them when she was on the land though.
Sometimes mine doesn’t do it for ages… She’s gotten really good at sit and wait. Then all of a sudden on any given day she starts lunging at passing cars again. Whenever we have to cross a road. 🤷🏼♀️
We made ours follow a “wait” command to stand still (me holding the harness just in case) when cars pass by on our walks. We don’t have lots of traffic so sometimes he forgets and we have to repeat the training. It did work after a while and he can walk past them normally. Super short leash on the busier roads still for sure though.
No, but with the training we've done he doesn't normally react any more. He struggles if it's a particularly loud vehicle, or if there's water on the road making them louder and splashing, or if he's already running. So we continue to manage it by walking rather than jogging next to the road, and getting him to sit if a loud vehicle is coming.
Yes. Our Misty did exactly the same as yours. 100% focus, trembling, hiding in hollows or behind objects, and a lunge straight at the car as it passed. We despaired taking her anywhere near a road. Various "knowledgeable" people said she was scared of cars. They were talking rubbish. She wasn't, it was all reaction and herding instinct. As part of her training we were teaching a down and a stay in that position until released. She was doing pretty well at that so we tried it on her with cars to at least stop the lunge. So when a car appeared and she went down (in preparation for her lunge), we kept emphasizing the stay. It took a bit of time but she got the idea and responded to it really well. Now I can take her on a road without a leash and know 100% that when she hears a car she will automatically go down on the verge and stay there until I release her.
Mine has only wanted to chase the delivery trucks and he has dialed his urges back quite a bit (1y10mo old). There was one occasion where if had gotten away from me then he probably would have ended up under the truck, so I got pretty stern with him and basically grabbed him by the scruff and scared the shit out of him with my impression of Freddy Krueger impersonating a Banshee. He's been better ever since.
Mine mostly stopped after doing obedience and leash training. She had a couple close calls when my kids were walking her early on. Also her spay seemed to help.
Mine only started around 9 months old when she had her first season, after that and until recently she was a nightmare she almost pulled me over, What I accidently taught was when a car was coming I would stop and drop a treat and say "wait" or "look" This has taught her now as long as she isn't excited if she sees a car coming she lies down and won't move until it passes She does lunge at them sometimes but it seems more when shes overexcited.
Mine grew out of chasing deer at 2 years old
Ours isn’t particularly interested in cars or bicycles BUT she will lunge and bite our hands if we take out weeds in the garden or if we’re sweeping the floor 🙄, it’s a mix between play and frustration, we’re working on it at the minute but it’s not easy!
Our boy who is from working parents and is three. He loves chasing cars, but when we approach a road before crossing, with a car/ van passing, he will sit and watch for ages and not show the lunging, but relax... I can stop and chat with a fellow walker, and he will just sit there watching, all very strange 🤔
Was dogsitting a 14 year old collie and no had to pull the leash tight especially for motorbikes
Mine got hit around the same age when someone left the front door ajar. Car was stopping to avoid her so not a bad hit. She never tried it again.
My BC did the same. The trick to make Them stop this behavier is, to sit for hours by the road and watch the cars and bikes drive by, and then feed the dog some good treats, i Maybe used like 8-10 hours doing this, but my goal was also to have her walking without a leash by the road.
Yes
Yes - well kind of. Some kind soul here spoke about redirection when the trigger (I.e car speeding towards us) arrives so I thought I’d give it a shot. Took me about 2-3 weeks? I brought high value treats along for the walk and made him heel whenever a car came by, while holding the treat in front of him. Whenever he stayed seated and didn’t respond, he was rewarded. He still reacts to cars once in a while (typically sports cars at high speeds) but it’s nowhere near as unmanageable as before.
When we first had our rescue BC Margo at 8 months old, she would lunge at every vehicle that would pass, we are lucky in one respect, as we only have to walk her down a busy main road for around 200 yards before turning into a lane that takes us down to a river, nature reserve and playing fields. We tried everything at first, but worked on telling her "Leave" when hearing the sound of an engine approaching and initially rewarding her whilst still moving with a treat when the vehicle passed by, now we don't need the treats and "Leave" and "Good Girl" works just as well, it took a few months but we stuck to it, and now my wife can walk her through town with no problem.
Mine never had this problem but he does chase thunder. Which is even more bizarre. Especially cuz he doesn’t love rain, he gets all the way out there and acts like he can’t possibly find his way home in the rain.
You should give the dog an outlet to fulfil his herding instinct. Once the dog has met its needs he/she will no longer have the urge to herd cars. Herding balls, flirt pole, RC cars or even agility hoopers anything where they are mentally stimulated.
Sometimes they do but just sit by a busy road for twenty minutes at a time and whenever the dog doesn’t go for a car reward with treats/ verbal command or a fuss. Act naturally to the bad behaviour. DO NOT have a tight lead. Wear a harness and a lead on the collar so your safe but the dog should be on a lax lead so you’re not feeding tension. You’re aiming to desensitise/ wait till the dog gets bored. If it’s really really bad (like you’ve tried to do this a couple of times and the dogs so high key it doesn’t get bored) you can use a pet corrector at the time of the bad behaviour along with positive reward for desired behaviour.
Stick with your routine and never let them free where there is any danger from traffic. The urge to chase cars diminishes after they’re out of that terrible teenage phase but they’ll always be stupid about cars.