21-10-2009, 08:59 PM
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Pet Forums VIP Member
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: South England
Posts: 1,506
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Re: chasing cars!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by vivk
Would I be right in thinking you must live in a very quiet, rural area? If so, you have two problems. Firstly you have a hyper-sensitive collie and secondly you live in a very quiet, rural area!
To desensitise you need to make a special effort of going to very busy areas, markets, bus stations, train stations etc. If there's a bench, sit on it and do nothing for a while. Lorry parks and motorway service areas are excellent too. Every time your dog gets agitated, tell him to sit but say nothing else. When he realises that his reaction earns him nothing he will start to just observe and absorb the noises, smells and activity. When he's able to deal with such a busy environment, the odd car going past him will be much easier for him to deal with!
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I do agree with this, however what I have found most effective is rewarding them for behaviour that we like. E.g. a "watch me", hand touch, not following the cars with their eyes. I think it's particularly important to be telling them what you do want them to do. Collies very often find it rewarding to watch things move quickly, which is why in some cases, they'll get themselves into such a state of excitement or frustration that they can't give chase. By rewarding them for watching you or not looking at the cars (using a clicker to mark behaviour like this is really useful IMO) and using high value rewards you can hopefully make these more desirable behaviours more rewarding or at least be able to lessen their sensitivity to the movement of the cars. But also like you said, not rewarding mad lurchy eyeballing cars behaviour and lots and lots of exposure to cars (gradually being careful not to go above the dog's current threshold) is going to help.
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