Feel like crying!!

Megansmom said:
You're right though, I/we as her family need to learn how to help Megan focus her energy in a positive direction. We do walk/jog, play heavily with her, train her, but apparently it isn't enough :cool:
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If she's a high drive dog, have you considered dog sports with her; agility, flyball, or frisbee? That's another way you can help to channel her energy and drive AND get to play with her as well.
 
I am with Bailey... The excitement is even in a higher drive when she is running.
Teach Megan how to be calm, refocus and take deep breaths...
One car at a time :)
Also gentle leader is a good work around, so you don't get even more discouraged... Mental stimulation also great way to tire them out!

Definitely look into contained exercises like to focus on you... then agility.. flyball.. herding etc... sports like that anything where she can let 'er rrrrrrip!

Toffee is allowed to chase his nemesis, 18 wheelers only at the fence at the dogpark.. he normally asks can I can I can I? .. and I say wait.. then GO... and I use that as a reward! This way he still has his 'job' of herding, because in the beginning I really could NOT contain or control it.. it was so scary!! ... Not ideal, I know... BUT now when he lunges at one when we are near the highway I say, no, not this one, leave it.. and reward the leave it! He is fine and happy as a clam! He knows... he will be able to let it rrrrrip when we get to the fenced in park.. close to the highway :cool:
 
This is a problem we have had with Meggie also. I actually walk her with a harness and a Gentle Leader both, I was/am so afraid I'll loose her. Actually she is getting much better. I have noticed that she does better with slow moving cars than fast. When she goes nicely past a slow moving car I give her a treat, it is carrying over on the fast ones now, she is looking for a treat on them too. When a car is coming we keep walking and I quietly tell her good girl, good girl until we are well past then she gets her treat and an excited petting which she loves. I find that the calmer I am the calmer she is. We live in a quiet household and she is pretty quiet except when we are playing. When we have kids over she is much more excited and active. Quiet = good. Loud = active.
 
The only thing I can add is have you tried switching Megan so she is on the inside of the path with you between her and the car?

Cadbury is reactive to motorcycles - we see them so rarely that I forget about the problem and then it raises its head.

Switching so I am a barrier between him and the car does help. If Megan is walking ahead of you I would shorten the lead so she is by your side, then you can block the road and break the behaviour.

I like Toffee's mom's idea of having controlled outlets for the behaviour. Its a bit like barking, if you teach them to bark on command this then makes it easier to stop them barking when you don't want it.

I have all this to look forward to with sheltie pup:confused2:
 
Megansmom said:
We don't live in the country or rural setting, we live in a very busy suburb, so taking Megan on walks can be miserable :no:. She lunges and lunges and LUNGES at cars when we're on a walk. We don't have any sheep for her to herd and run all that energy out.

I walk/jog/run her in the mornings and DH does the same at night so she gets plenty of exercise. We try stopping everytime she goes to lunge, turning around in circles, giving her treats when she doesn't lunge, she still does it :mad:. She will fall over herself in hysterics trying to lunge and RUN. I end up having to hold her for her own safety sometimes.

The only time she does NOT try to sprint or lunge is when there are no cars around!!

Sorry for the rant, I'm just so frustrated I want to cry :cool:
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Sandstorm used to do that- at times still does. He growls when he does this too. I don't use treat rewards, they don't work for us. When I take him on walks, if we see a car he sits (now he does it on his own), I PRAISE him when he sits and is quiet. If he lunges, barks, growls and doesn't sit, I make him sit and calm down and I do not praise- I say okay and we keep walking. He has gotten much better at sitting and being quiet on his own. He may bark a bit, but that is okay. I also use a martingale. It had taken a couple of months to get to this point.
Just speaking for myself, when I used treats he would just behave badly at every car thinking he would get the treat- my timing would have had to be perfect- it never was. He also does not get treats for sitting, staying, and coming on command. He gets kisses- just my opinion and what has worked for us. Good luck, it can be very frustrating.
Karen
 
regarding energy- if your Megan anything like Che, he has to have pooch park every morning and evening for about an hour each time and midday play/ walk for 30-40 minutes to keep him content.
I noticed Che lunging at cars when he was about 4 months old. We immediately went out to the busy street EVERY morning for 3 weeks with kibble. Initially Che will just sit and I hand feed him kibble after each car pass by. After couple of days we started slow walk and do heeling for little bit, watch me for little bit, sit... slowly we progressed, each day got better and better. Presently Che is excellent on the leash.
 
KarenCurtis said:
Sandstorm used to do that- at times still does. He growls when he does this too. I don't use treat rewards, they don't work for us. When I take him on walks, if we see a car he sits (now he does it on his own), I PRAISE him when he sits and is quiet. If he lunges, barks, growls and doesn't sit, I make him sit and calm down and I do not praise- I say okay and we keep walking. He has gotten much better at sitting and being quiet on his own. He may bark a bit, but that is okay. I also use a martingale. It had taken a couple of months to get to this point.
Just speaking for myself, when I used treats he would just behave badly at every car thinking he would get the treat- my timing would have had to be perfect- it never was. He also does not get treats for sitting, staying, and coming on command. He gets kisses- just my opinion and what has worked for us. Good luck, it can be very frustrating.
Karen
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TY karen for the suggestions, especially since Megan IS food motivated. I've always felt that I didn't want to start rewarding her with treats because I did not want her to get too used to them, since I won't always have them. I guess there is a balance of using treats when you first begin training them in something then slowly wean them off.

We've been using one of those "no pull" harnesses to keep her from choking herself to death when she lunges :cool:.

YES it is frustrating to say the least :(. I do know in part, she can't help it, but it's hard to deal with :rolleyes2:.
 
Someone already said some something about gentle leaders and I second it. I've used a gentle leader in the past for larger breeds that jump and pull while walking and I do recommend them. I'll probably be getting one for Saidy soon to help with her jumping at cars while walking.
 
SheltieChe said:
regarding energy- if your Megan anything like Che, he has to have pooch park every morning and evening for about an hour each time and midday play/ walk for 30-40 minutes to keep him content.
I noticed Che lunging at cars when he was about 4 months old. We immediately went out to the busy street EVERY morning for 3 weeks with kibble. Initially Che will just sit and I hand feed him kibble after each car pass by. After couple of days we started slow walk and do heeling for little bit, watch me for little bit, sit... slowly we progressed, each day got better and better. Presently Che is excellent on the leash.
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My DH did that with Megan awhile back, sitting on a busy street with treats, I don't think it was too terribly successful though :cool:. However it has been awhile so maybe he can try again and see if it works.

Unfortunately the dog parks that are anywhere NEAR my town aren't all that great and she won't run in the ones we have taken her to.

She currently gets a good walk/jog/run every morning for about 15-20 minutes before it gets too horribly hot. My Dh takes her in the evening and pretty much jogs or lets her lead the pace. I also play with her quite a bit thorughout the day. So she's not too terribly hyper, thank GOD :smile2:
 
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