Jumps After Cars

[Caro]

There's quite a few things you can do.

The barking/lunging at cars tends to be from excessive prey drive, esp common in herding dogs that are bred to react to things moving away from them. First approach is to teach the dog to control its prey drive - and how successful that is depends on how great their prey drive is. I have one dog with a high drive and one that's moderate. The moderate one was fairly easy to calm down (except with really noisy cars), the high drive one I often have to 'remind' to be calm.

I'd start by making sure your dog is calm when you leave the house. That may mean doing some obedience commands when you leave the house but before you start the walk. Dogs tend to get really excited when they start a walk so a few commands will start them out with some self control.

Try walking with the cars coming from behind you rather than toward you - that way your dog doesn't see the movement of the car so readily. If you are heading into traffic keep talking and interacting with your dog so their attention is focused on you, not the cars. I used to take a squeaky ball with me - the squeak sound seems to get through to that hyper-excited dog brain where their name may not.

Spend some time standing at the side of the road calmly just watching cars go by, talking to the dog, playing and interacting. The idea is to desensitise them to cars and the sound of cars. You could also give them treats while you are interacting to distract them - altho take care not to just treat when a car goes past as you don't want to associate treats with cars.

Try downloading some car sounds from the internet and play them on a loop while your dog is eating dinner. Then you can at least seperate the sound of the car from it's movement so they won't be listening out for cars.

These should help desensitise the dog - but if its it a high prey drive dog you might need the extra assistance of a head collar. The head collar allows you to redirect their focus away from the cars and keep moving. I have to get out the head collar every once and a while with my high drive dog who will still sometimes slip into hyper-drive, but she gets the idea to settle down pretty quickly. I think the head collar will be more appropriate than the harness.

Btw - I agree its really important to get the flexi-lead off. They shouldn't be used on collars, only on harnesses. They teach a dog to pull so will actually be adding to the problem, with flexi leads have a continual pull on the dogs collar so they don't know which pull means stop. Importantly there have been many incidents of them coming detached or breaking from collars and flicking dogs in the eye.

 

[Ophelia]

Hi.,
I don't have a sheltie yet but these are great responses to an important issue of safety for a sheltie. Safe leashes and the ability to direct a pet away from danger at all times until they are no longer attracted to the moving object is so important.

 

[JacqueZ]

I love the treat advice, Honey does well with most cars, but a few cars by us tend to speed super fast down the road and they scare her. She barks and lunges, away rather than towards, but I don't want her to get scared one day and end up running into the path of another car! I've been trying all fall to break her of it.

 

[Tagg]

Dogs are pretty smart cookies. They easily learn the difference between collars and leads and which is for walking ahead of you and which is for walking beside you. I love flexi leads but not for walking along roadsides. Their place is when you are away from traffic and pedestrians. I have trained every dog that has grown up here since 1979 with the same one and yet to have a dog that will pull even a 2 year old kid over when the kid tries to run with the dog. Remember I have Belgians and westies - one a herding dog and the other a predator. I love them because it's darn hard to inadvertantly pull the dog when you are teaching it to follow you - unlike a 6 foot training lead. I find that most dogs learn to pull from inexperienced hands pulling on the dog. Tinsel was the exception as he was terrified of any type of constraint. He got the 30' lunge line so that the lead could stay loose at all times but once he started to follow the chicken weiner trail we moved on to that same old flexi. He is an absolute pleasure to walk now.
I don't like head collars. They work by putting pressure on the nasal bones and the occiput - just like the halter on a horse. They have a tendancy to slide around when an inadvertant pull is put on one, for example when the dog lunges at something or balks. I would use one only as a last resort for going on a walk. I would never recommend them to a novice even though it is the big gadget in dog training now. To me it is like going up to a more severe bit in a horse instead of doing the work that is needed and being patient enough to see it through.
I like the idea of using positive techniques even when there isn't anything to worry about so that when there is the dog looks to me for guidance. A long time ago I said that I am a threshold trainer. I don't take dogs from A to Z in one leap but instead use gradual introductions to the things that might scare them or make them react. Even my horses were trained to walk up hills for a long time before they were allowed the luxury of a trot because I didn't want to fight them for the next 20 years.
For a confirmed puller, then I think I agree with BarbV and would try the harness that can be clipped in the chest area. However, I would be working to teach it to walk beside me calmly with treats and praise.
I am not an exhibitor in performance events just a dabbler but I am constantly being told how lovely and well mannered my dogs are. Even Tinsel got his first veterinary compliment the last time he was in when the vet said that he was the best behaved dog he had seen all day. Training a puppy really is making every interaction a teaching moment always working towards an end result. The hardest part is deciding exactly what you want that puppy to be like when it is no longer that cute little ball of fluff.