Agressive behavior with cars

H

HanFam

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Folks:

I have a 2-year-old neutered Male. Extremely friendly to people--even strangers enough that he doesn't run away but is trusting. He is actively walked daily and gets 20 to 30 off leash to chase birds, rabbit and the occasional fox.

He is well behaved inside the house and when on walks--until a car or a loud motorbike approaches. He will consistently lunch and bark at most cars--and at every motorbike. Clearly his energy rises when he hears or sees one coming. I often have him sit and will hold his collar to let him know I don't want him to react. He doesn't bark through my collar hold but energ is still high. If her were to get off lease, I have no doubt he would run to the car--and even in front of it. Thus, this is life threatening if he gets loose. Any recommendations how to train this out of him? It's really the worst and only dangerous behavior he has.

Would love any suggestions.
 
My dog hates motorcycles and loud cars. I do the ol' reward for good behavior. Before my dog reached that crazy lunging threshold, I stuffed her face with treats and I continued to treat her until the loud vehicle passed. She is now at the point where instead of barking, she looks at me for a treat. I always keep treats on me when we go for walks, so I still reinforce her good behavior. I don't have to feed her treats the entire time anymore. I'm at the point where I just give her one for not reacting.

I will warn you though, it's not an instant fix. Something like this takes time and there will probably be set backs, but keep it up and you will see a change. By giving treats, you're trying to change your dogs association with loud vehicles from something to kill to something I get rewarded for. It's an association change from something negative to positive. Good luck!
 
Not an "easy" fix. First off, you'll need to determine your dog's threshold. How far away do you need to be from the trigger (car, motorcycle) for your dog to remain calm and attentive to you? It's at that distance that you can start desensitizing him to moving vehicles by teaching a proper behavior. What do you want him to do instead of lunging and barking? Do you want him to turn his head and look at you when he hears one coming or do you want him to sit/down? The goal would be to mark which behavior you want him to do while remaining under threshold. Gradually, you can move closer to the stimulus. If he's reacting, you've moved too far too quickly. Use really high value treats so that he's more inclined to be reinforced by you and not by the car going by. It's going to be a long process because he has already learned that chasing/lunging at cars is self-rewarding. When I started my young dog with cars, I had to be a good ways away from the cars going by (on a low traffic back road). I would hear one coming, get his attention and have him sit while feeding chicken and other high value treats to him in rapid succession when it was going by. When the car was gone, no more treats! Over time, he learned to look at me as soon as he heard a car. Car=delicious treats!! Now I've faded the treats and we can walk on main roads with no problem. Occasionally, I will reward him just for being a good boy.
 
I think you've gotten some really good advice so far. I just wanted to add, if you are nervous about him getting off leash, I would make sure you have a harness or martingale collar to make sure he can't escape.
 
I have the very same problem and fear with Cleo. Basically I have to have high value treats with me (Cleo loves string cheese) and every time a car is going to pass, I make her sit for the treat and watch me. I have been doing this for months now to the point that I don't always need to use the treat or make her sit and can continue walking right by a moving car. But every once in a while she will get that build of energy and I can tell it is time to break out the treats. If you stay consistent, over time this should get better. I know it has made walking much easier and less stressful for us.

I also want to add that if you are walking in a high traffic area, this may not be the best solution for you. Like JoonieB has mentioned, it is best to do this on a low traffic back road.
 
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Another member asked the same question recently. I'm going to cut and paste my response to that question as I think it will help you (ignore the 'she'). I particularly think disconnecting the sound of the car to the movement should help. Sounds like he may be having a bit of fun and putting the car in line in typical sheltie 'bark and that will fix it' behaviour.

"...If she is high drive then letting her sit and watch the cars will just increase her frustration... I'd suggest two things, one is to download some sounds of cars from the internet (or record them yourself), and play them over and over so she disassociate the sound of a car with the movement so won't be looking out for cars when she hears them. The other suggestion is take a squeaky toy on your walks. If she loses focus or goes to bark at a car squeak they toy, I'm yet to see a puppy that doesn't love the squeak. When she looks at you have a little play with the toy (a game of tug or something, just so the toy still holds value).

Don't give her a treat because a car is coming - if she is high drive you are increasing the value of cars: treats=cars=even more exciting. Give treats intermittently to get her to focus on you, so also give her treats when there are no cars. And call her name first and when she looks at you give her a treat, rather than showing her the treat to make her look at you. It's a fine line but timing is everything."
 
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