Hello,

I'm new here and I would like some advice please.

We have owned a Lurcher dog (Teggy) for 3 1/2 yrs and he's a bit excitable with other dogs when out on a walk, normally he wants to play and if the dog is loose we let him go over but if we see other dogs on leads we put him on his lead. His recall is usually ok but from time to time he will ignore us and run off to play, once he is running he will not listen and will keep running until he gets to the other dog.

Now we have just rehomed a 2yr old Lurcher bitch (Lacey) and Teggy is causing problems on walks, he like to chase things (being a lurcher this is quite common i believe) and he loves to play but he is taking it too far and Lacey is starting to become scared. Last night she ran away from my wife and Teggy chased her for quite some distance until my wife managed to get them back. Now we are worried that she may run towards a road and he will chase her and something may happen. Once the chasing starts Teggy will not stop and Lacey keeps running away, can anyone suggest how we can control this? We have tried treats, whistles, (some times works, i have a very loud natural whistle but my wife can hardly whistle) toys and even running in the opposite direction but this only works about 50% of the time.

Lacey has very good recall and will happily trot back when you call her name but Teggy chases her away (it's not an agressive act, he just wants to play) and she becomes scared.

Basically we want him to stop being such an idiot by chasing her, playing rough and growling. Does anyone have any advice as to how we can do this?
We have only had Lacey for a week so this may stop in time but I'd like to try something to help reduce the problem incase time does not fix things.

Thanks

Rob

The simple solution Rob, is to keep him on a lead!

The new dog needs to feel safe and secure. Let her settle in without getting chased, and keep him on a lead.

Also if your new dog is better behaved off the lead than your old dog, then you may find that the old dog begins to behave better.

They do learn off each other, which can be a good thing, but also a bad thing!

Good luck and well done for going down the rescue route!

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D'oh, feel like an idiot for not thinking of that now, simple and good advice now you've mentioned it, thanks!

He is probably also laying down his authority with her. But that is prob not the best place to do it....

__________________


Do you own a DINOS (dogs in need of space). To find out more and to find a walking buddy follow the link!


www.dogsinneedofspace.co.uk

If he is then it's the only place he does it, all other times she is appearing as the boss, esp at dinner time, she finishes first and will happily push him off his food.

That is exactly what I was going to say. If both are lurchers, once Lacey feels more secure, she will probably chase him back. When that happens they will be having a good game together, but at the moment, better to build up her security.

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Forget the "who's boss" nonsense, for a start.

Teach them BOTH a reliable recall. Start from scratch, using a different recall sound that they haven't yet learned to ignore (a proper dog whistle would be a good idea, because it will always sound the same whether you or your wife are using it). There are loads of good recall articles on here to explain how to do it.

Try to get your dogs toy orientated. If they are already, build on that. You need to be more fun than anything/anyone else.

Feed them ONLY when you are working on recall (assuming they're on kibble). So they don't get food in a bowl any more; they get it when they come to you. You become far more high value if you are their only source of food.

Walk/train offlead SEPARATELY. When you get to the stage where one can be let off reliably, keep the other onlead. There will come a time when you can let both off, but for now, you need to prevent the behaviour you don't want being practised.

Well we tried recall training last night, used a dog whistle and some smelly ham, worked very well. Kept one on the lead while the other wandered about, then swapped over. As they are both very food orientated we felt this would be the best method, fingers crossed this will help.

Thanks for the advice