Rucks VS the school bus

R

ruckusluvr

Forums Enthusiast
And I am getting sooooo fed up

First a little back ground on Ruckus.

He has has issues his whole life. He was aggressive and very fearful of most anything from socked feet to words starting with the letter "V". I saw a behaviorist who recommended having him PTS. Luckily soon after my vet found a combination of meds that worked wonders for him. but he is still not your normal average dog. He goes from calm, to extremely worked up with not much in between.

When Ruckus is outside in our fenced in yard and he even hears the school bus, he runs around barking and growling, and then re directs his aggression at my other dog. he does NOT hurt her, but knocks her on the ground. it doesnt hurt her feelings at all, she gets right back up and acts normal. but it pains me to see this.
I normally do not walk the dogs when we might run into a bus on our walk, but sometimes it still happens.
Both dogs lunge and pull. they bark and growl, and they have even tangled me up and tripped me. Sometimes Ruckus will redirect his aggression on my other dog, or me.

I am only having this issue with the school bus. Thank goodness, it used to be with anything that moved!

The way I have been treating Ruckus's behavior to the school bus is just to avoid it. It is so easy to mess Ruckus up, its easier for me just to avoid problem situations. But if he hears the school bus when he is in the house he goes crazy too!

does anyone have any tips on getting him to stop doing this?

I dont think that Ruckus is scared of the school buss. Ears are erect, tail is up in the air, and he runs toward it.

I could get a video tomorrow morning if i needed to!


LOL: I spelled Ruckus's name wrong in the title! oops!
thanks for any help at all. I am getting so discouraged!
 
I wish I could help. My oldest dog pepper will sometimes still go after the school bus or garbage truck, its the air brakes that drive her nuts! She will start spinning then run up and down the fence if I am not out there to tell her enough. Maybe keep him on a long line so you can correct him when he starts to react, I dont know if that would work or not?
 
Indy goes nuts over school buses as well.

Every morning they park just outside my house with the engines running, waiting to start their route. When they start gearing up to get moving, that's when he loses it, so in his case it's not the air brakes. Plus we have City buses going by all day long and they don't phase him at all.

School buses tend to have louder engines, though and sound different than other large vehicles. Maybe it's some sound that us humans can't hear.

When Indy does his charge around the backyard when the buses are out, I let him have his 5 minutes of rampage. Bacca has just learned to sit back and shake his head at silly Indy.

You might want to try the can-shaking and other modification behaviours that many of us have found successful with the evil hair dryers and vacuums.
 
thank you!

My main issue is that he re directs his aggression at poor lynn!

and on the walks... on lord. pray a bus isnt anywhere near.

Silly shelties, always chasing stuff and barking
 
I have a similar problem. I ended up taking Deska up to a parked bus and walked around it with the driver - bad move, they just excited him more. And mine both have referred aggression when they get over-excited

His issue with buses has diminished. On walks he gets a treat for not barking at buses. And if he barks and Tully doesn't, well only Tully gets the treat. The only other thing I can think of, I taught my pups to come inside when I whistle (whistle then treat). And when Deska is 'alert' barking I will whistle for him to come inside - altho nowadays he has learnt to come inside on his own if he wants to alert bark. Maybe you could teach Ruckus to run inside everytime a bus goes past.
 
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