Has anyone 'cured' a car chaser?

[Bubble2bubble]

And if so,how?
I have a very young pup here showing waaay too much interest and would like to re-direct her asap :)

I'm also interested in this as we're thinking of adopting a soon to be retired working dog who has chased cars for most of his life (now 10 years old and hit by a car chasing when younger). We would be able to keep him fenced within our land, but I'm fearful of a potential escape. I think professional help would be the only way forward as we would also be dealing with a host of other issues, such as never having lived in a house etc.

I would put in a strong overhead dog trolley. Better safe than sorry.

My dog used to lunge and bark at motorbikes when she was a puppy.

Every time she did it I would stop her, get her to stand beside me and focus on me then treat her when she looked at me and ignored the bike.

It worked for me but would add that although she's not the brightest dog in the world she does seem to pick up on certain types of training.

It wasn't easy and it took a lot of perseverance on my part but she has been cured, well she doesn't do it any more so I assume she's cured.

It's a difficult one because it's so rewarding for the dog: bark at the large moving object and what do you know, it runs away.

This is probably a very good candidate for clicker training if you are inclined to use it, although I didn't.

At 10 years old Chanel it might be a bit too entrenched, but certainly worth a try.

I'm guessing you're right, like everything the key is focussing her attention back to me but she's really young and it took me by surprise how strong the instinct is. ( rough collie x )

I'm sure I saw a book about this years ago, pretty sure the gist of it was doing loads of 'controlled' chasing with balls, but not sure....

My dog also did a lot of ball chasing when she was a puppy, in fact she was a bit ball obsessed, although isn't so much now. But nothing beat those motorbikes.

It was a bit taken aback when she started doing it too. She seemed so intent on it. It got so I was always watching out for motor bikes when we were walking in the street in case she suddenly lunged and I wasn't prepared for the sudden yank on my arm.

Probably a bit worse with a collie, the instinct to herd those pesky cars must be overwhelming :)

Any other collie people around?

Thank you for the advice - greatly appreciated. I'm a big believer that you can teach older dogs new things so would be happy to persevere with anything if we can offer him a safe, peaceful and happy life.

Yes! Collie owner signing in.

Look at 'CARE' and join fb group 'reactive dogs uk'

It can be done. They're fast learners!

Biscuit in hand and praise for focus on you. Sit with her on a lead next to road. and get her to solely focus on you. Use a command word, ie leave, over and over.

If all else fails car + running for car = water pistol - do this on a long extendable lead.

Praise in my view works 90% of the time. I knew a dog who would bolt 6ft gates to get on the road, water pistol very quickly cured it (within 24 hours)

My collie would go mental at a water pistol. I do mean in a frenzy. He wouldn't know whether he was coming or going. He'd go over threshold instantly and be in a quivering mess.

CARE protocol worked. Not a quick fix, but s long term one.

This is the current recommendation. careforreactivedogs.com

I do the ‘sit and treat for not lungeing’ method - as soon as I hear a car coming I get his attention and get him to focus on the treat, then give it as the car passes and his arse stays on the ground. He’s not a collie but a very stubborn podengo (Portuguese hunting dog)

I would have a 2 fold approach. Firstly i would have him far enough from the cars that he is not interested in chasing them, (even if it's half a mile away) and using a clicker to mark the response you want, looking at/being aware of cars, but not chasing them, click and treat. Then over a period of days move closer to the moving cars, all the while clicking and treating for watching the cars without chasing them. (You want to get to a point where he sees a car and looks to you for a treat). If he ever goes 'over threshold ' and tries to chase one, be aware you've gone too fast, too soon and go back to where he was under threshold.
The second prong to my approach is to teach him to stop whilst he is chasing a ball. To do this enlist a helper. Throw the ball towards the helper and let the dog retrieve it. Repeat a number of times. Then do it again and as the dog sets off, call him back and get your helper to pick up the ball before he gets to it. Encourage him back to you and reward him with a duplicate ball. Repeat, randomly letting him retrieve the ball, and occasionally calling him back.

Thanks all, this is interesting. So I do this CARE already with a dog reactive dog ( and know it works) but didn't automatically think it would transfer to car chasing, but this is good news!

Also the calling off a ball chase would be amazing, will definitely try. I only just taught her to retrieve balls yesterday so there's room to develop that.

She's a pup who has until now been left outside to her own devices so a strong chance that a good part of her day has been chasing cars :(