You might find this site, article (and book) very useful:
How to control predatory chasing in dogs – David Ryan CCAB

I have the book and it gives a very detailed step-by-step training method to control and stop chasing.

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I have also read this book. I'd thoroughly recommend it.

His other articles are also definately worth a read

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Cheers. Will give it a bash.

we had this really awful experience in Richmond Park when ray was around 12 months, we passed a group of deers so we thought to put him back on the leash, he didn't badge an eyelid so we thought good he is not interested. Fools! We walked on a bit when about 50 mtrs down the hill we let him off again, mistake! He just turned on his heels and run up, turned once I swear he had a grin on his face! He ended up chasing deers for 5 solid minutes, went off sight and brought them all back; much to the horror of the people in the park.

They aslo called the police on us and we nearly got fined £1,000, but must admit the policeman was chuckling a bit looking at a very exhausted dog flat on the grass...

Goes without saying we never returned to Richmond Park!

We live in a rural area, where the sheep & cows are rotated through different fields, plus we have geese, rabits and deer. All for our GSD to chase.

When we first got her she manage to catch a rabbit and kill it, next day she thought she would chase a cow, as she was off the lead and just took off... and got kicked - some would say that was karma....

Since then she has obviously been wary of cows. We now only take her through those fields on the lead.. The problem with cows are they are very curious animals and will come quite near, unless shoed away. This does make her nervous, but I try to be positive so as to make it worse..

When it came to sheep, if she was on one side of the wire fence, and they were on the other if off the lead she would run the length of the field.. Once she even ran straight into the wire fence and bounced off - she shocked herself, but it was funny... Thankfully unable to get at the sheep, but it is still considered sheep worrying and as far as I am aware you can still be procescuted - especially at lambing time!

I always make my dog sit down and calm down before taking her any where near livestock and always on a lead. If we come through a field with Sheep, again, I will make her sit and wait, always distracting her is the ears prick up, until I want to move on, keeping her close to me and distacting when her body language changes.

It takes time, but I would say 9 times out of 10 she now ignores them. I will never have her off the lead as I know she will chase. It is their nature to chase animals and having seen her kill a couple of Rabbits - I would rather be safe than sorry.

Hope that helps :-)

Good luck.

I introduced Dave to sheep and cows from an early age- before he was 8 weeks I would carry him.
It didn't make much difference!

Where we walk just past the point the first dog gets let off the lead there is a gate with a gap under it. There used to be a large rock in the way.
Well yesterday it was Dave's turn off lead first and he is going through a bit of an ''I can't hear you'' phase. He spotted the sheep and ran off. I was yelling at him to come back, he went over the hill out of sight. Fraser handed me Bully and jumped over. By the time I had tied one of the others up he was on his way back. Idiot dog that he is!

He got put back on his lead and didn't get let off atall for the entire walk.
We got a bit further on and there was the farmer doing his rounds! Thank god he was like 3 fields away!


I am going to start teaching dave that sheep = down. Or something, so that if he 'stares' at them I tell him down, then if he is off lead and he is used to going down I will be able to catch him.

My old dog had rabbits for the cue to heel. 99% of the time he would come back.

It's terrifying when your dog runs off chasing something! I'm scared they will hurt the animal, or get hurt, or lost!

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Not long after I got Ziggy (a collie cross), she chased a flock of sheep. She was ahead of me on a footpath (no sheep) that went into a field (lots of sheep). Some people coming the other way opened the gate and let her through. She ran the flock across the field, then came back to me - I was calling her the whole time. As we live on a farm with sheep I took this very seriously.
I made her fear sheep by pretending I was scared of them. Whenever we walked through a field of them I would make myself tense up, and if any of them were close, I'd put her behind me like I was having to protect her from them. It worked - she now thinks sheep want to rip her head off and stamp on the bits!
One day we were on the shore where there's a nice walk and a parking place. We went down to the far end and on the way back found about 30 sheep had escaped from their field and were between us and the car on this quite narrow strip of land - and I hadn't got a lead. I got Ziggy to walk to heel through the flock which she did beautifully. And I'll never forget the time some escaped lambs on the farm here ganged up and chased her up the road!
Around livestock, it's crazy not to have the dog on a lead. There was a dog off-lead that was shot and killed a few years back (in the Lakes I think) when it just suprised a couple of sheep from behind a rock. It wasn't chasing them. I think the owner was fined too.

I have a ridgeback X and I have problems with her jumping up at people - she's 7 months now and getting fairly big, its a bit of a problem as there are a lot of frail elderely people in the neighborhood!

She also loves to chase anything that runs away from her (but she's terrified if they run at her) she's caught a chicken before (unharmed) and wants to chase sheep but I can generally call her off as long as she doesn't get too close as she then goes 'deaf' but whenever I know any animals are around I keep her on her lead.

I wouldn't mind hearing some advice on training!

If your dog is off-leash on farmland and the farmer thinks it is a threat to his livestock he will tell you. If you your dog is off-leash and chasing livestock the farmer has every right to shoot your dog, it is up to the farmer if he wants to exercise this.

Putting a dog in with a ram is a no brainer. Why would you ever want to put your dog in such danger? One blow and the damage could be terminal if not instant. Would you go in with an angry ram?

If you are on farm land respect where you are and put your dog on a leash. If you think there might be livestock in an area put your dog on a leash. It doesn't take much to ensure your dog is safe and so are the livestock.

If you are on farmland and feel threatened by any cows then by all means drop the leash as they will be bothered about the dog and not you and the dog can run faster than a cow, you can't.

If you think that your reactions to your dog are quicker than your dog's reactions to what it is seeing and wanting to do think again. Get it on a leash and then there is no room for error.