Feel like crying!!

[KarenCurtis]

Have you ever thought of training her to walk on a treadmill? When it is hot here I can get more energry out of the dogs by adding a 20-30 walk on the treadmill. Here is a article for Clean Run and how to use a treadmill for conditioning.
http://www.cleanrun.com/images/features/CecesGymTreadmillWalking.pdf

I real lifesaver for those high energy dogs when it is so hot out.

Also yes I think agood obedience class would be great.

The guy with the T.V. show who shall remain nameless uses a treadmill sometimes for his dogs- great idea, I wish I could get one but my house is too small, really, it is.
Karen

 

[Sharon]

Lunging

My darling Shadow use to do that but I cured him of it very quickly. I will say every once in awhile he has an episode of it. When he goes into what I call "Kujo Mode" I take my heel and tap him in the butt with it and say NO and for me it worked.I then make him sit and focus on me.

 

[Megansmom]

My darling Shadow use to do that but I cured him of it very quickly. I will say every once in awhile he has an episode of it. When he goes into what I call "Kujo Mode" I take my heel and tap him in the butt with it and say NO and for me it worked.I then make him sit and focus on me.

I do something similar, making her sit, but as soon as she gets up, it's on again .

It's so freakin, stinkin, horribly hot and humid here this time of year that stopping, sitting, staying, turning around in circles, is miserable and it doesn't work for Megan.

We'll probably be enrolling her in a different obedience class in August, cause what we're doing aint working .

 

[corbinam]

Susan, don't get too discouraged. I have similar problems with Bentley. I decided that I was going to take baby steps in trying to resolve the problem. My goal was to be able to walk around our small loop without a huge meltdown. Bentley doesn't lunge after cars, but after people (sometimes), dogs and bikes.

Before setting this goal, I did try using the Gentle Leader. It did keep him from lunging, so it was good in that it kept Bentley safe (he has been able to get out of numerous collars), but I didn't feel like it addressed his issues at all. He still barked, and wanted to lunge, just didn't. It made me feel like I wasn't actually helping him at all, and he was still stressed.

I started taking him out for a few minutes during the day armed with a jar of baby food (we used beef and ham). I would put the food in his face as soon as he saw something. The key is to get him the food before he reacts, which means before his "threshold". Because I know that once he starts lunging, it's too late, I can't calm him or even get his attention. Some days we could barely leave the driveway because something was close. Other days we made it halfway up the road before I decided not to push him too far.

But, I had to stop because of the heat. So, once it cools down, I'm going to get back to it.

All of that to say that I don't have an answer to the problem yet. But I think it's going to take a lot of time and dedication.

 

[Megansmom]

Susan, don't get too discouraged. I have similar problems with Bentley. I decided that I was going to take baby steps in trying to resolve the problem. My goal was to be able to walk around our small loop without a huge meltdown. Bentley doesn't lunge after cars, but after people (sometimes), dogs and bikes.

Before setting this goal, I did try using the Gentle Leader. It did keep him from lunging, so it was good in that it kept Bentley safe (he has been able to get out of numerous collars), but I didn't feel like it addressed his issues at all. He still barked, and wanted to lunge, just didn't. It made me feel like I wasn't actually helping him at all, and he was still stressed.

I started taking him out for a few minutes during the day armed with a jar of baby food (we used beef and ham). I would put the food in his face as soon as he saw something. The key is to get him the food before he reacts, which means before his "threshold". Because I know that once he starts lunging, it's too late, I can't calm him or even get his attention. Some days we could barely leave the driveway because something was close. Other days we made it halfway up the road before I decided not to push him too far.

But, I had to stop because of the heat. So, once it cools down, I'm going to get back to it.

All of that to say that I don't have an answer to the problem yet. But I think it's going to take a lot of time and dedication.

Ha ha, wow, I love it, babyfood as high value treats! Megan doesn't seem too interested in people or other dogs, she just HAS to get at that car going by .

Buy the way, since it is so horrendously hot right now, what do you do to exercise them?

 

[Furmom]

Hi Susan,

I'm not sure if this is much help but I have had the same issue with Angel. She went from being terrified of cars to lunging and barking after them.

I have taught her to "watch me" and "leave it". I use both of them. She still has an occassional lunge but over all she is getting much better. When I hear or see the car approaching I have her focus on me. If her attention starts to turn to the car I tell her to "leave it". If she does this successfully she is treated if not she gets a firm no. We're a work in progress but we are making progress.

(BTW, she's a treadmill junky).

 

[Caro]

Ha ha, wow, I love it, babyfood as high value treats! Megan doesn't seem too interested in people or other dogs, she just HAS to get at that car going by .

Which reminds me. Did some tracking training with my vet-behaviourist the other day. She owns a reactive German Shephard and she uses cat food as a high value treat! She carries those little pouches of moist cat food (just the wiskas kind) and with the dog concentrating on sucking some cat food out of the pouch it completely ignores what else is going on. My dogs love cat food so you can imagine how fascinated they were in it. Keep meaning to get some cheap stuff to see if it works distracting Mr D from chasing cars.

And that makes me wonder (completely OT here) - can dogs actually suck?

 

[corbinam]

Buy the way, since it is so horrendously hot right now, what do you do to exercise them?

Well...Lexi gets a walk in the evening (and even then, it's short because the humidity is 85+%), and Bentley doesn't require much exercise. We normally do agility about 4 times a week for an hour or two.

But, I can tell you that Bentley barks at bikes and dogs even if he is dead tired

 

[Megansmom]

Well...Lexi gets a walk in the evening (and even then, it's short because the humidity is 85+%), and Bentley doesn't require much exercise. We normally do agility about 4 times a week for an hour or two.

But, I can tell you that Bentley barks at bikes and dogs even if he is dead tired

Ha ha Megan does the same thing to cars of course!! This morning I slowly reintroduced our treadmill to Megan. Like you and other's here have said, it's too darn hot, even in the morning the humidity is ridiculous. My DH doesn't is a runner no matter WHAT the weather is, so he can take her outside at night

 

[sheltielover17]

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 . 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

Hi Megansmom - I have an 'almost' 8 month old Sheltie puppy, Poppy, who has started to lunge and go crazy when cars pass. Usually it's the fast ones, but slow have caught her eye as well. I've tried to have her sit, I keep her on the inside on the road and close to my leg, I give her treats when she does the right thing, I used the clicker, etc. but nothing is snapping her out of 'the zone.' I live in a busy suburb and take long walks with her with other dogs, but she has gotten worse. I am discouraged since I realized today that the walk is no longer fun. I have her on a harness and am petrified she will break loose. A few months ago I was teaching her to go to the side and I'd say "watch out." She did it for a while - and randomly does it now, but today was the absolute worst. It's like a shark with a feeding frenzy. She actively looks for cars - I need to find a way to calm her down so she'll listen. I wondered if you've had success with Megan?? Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions. I saw that someone suggested a book called Chase and left a link, but the link said "error" when I clicked on it.