Dog lunging at motorbikes, scooters, runners...

[Dinesen78]

In the last few months my 11 month male small breed dog has started lunging at motorbikes, scooters, runners - anything that goes by quickly! This is when we're on the pavement and he's on the lead, off lead on the heath or parks there is less opportunity for him to do this.
I can get a trainer, but is the idea to start treating him once he sees these moving objects, until they pass? There are a lot of them around as I live in a city! He's neutered and has also started to be twitchy around male dogs who aren't neutered, although only when he's on the lead.

Hi - mine did this for a while with cars and cyclists. I ended up sitting him down facing away from the road/bike path and giving him a treat if he just ignored it - every time we went out for weeks. eventually he got over it - he's fine now. Not sure whether that will work and obviously you need somewhere where it's not constant traffic but maybe worth a try?

My dog did exactly the same thing, just with motorbikes.

The problem is that it's very rewarding for the dog because they lunge and the motorbike runs away.

I found that getting my dog to focus on me every time a motorbike appeared and, as you say, treating until the motorbike has gone - obviously only treating if my dog's attention was completely on me - worked perfectly.

Not sure it's something that really needs a trainer.

I would mark and reward the minute you hear/see the first thing about a vehicle. Usually it is the sound. Keep rewarding until the sound and the vehicle is out of sight.

It is important NOT to make the dog look at you whilst this is happening eg do not ask them to. You want your dog to acknowledge the vehicle and then good things happen. Treats appear in front of them when the vehicle is involved.

If you make them look at you or do some other behaviour all you are doing is distracting them from the vehicle. You want to teach them that vehicles are ok and no need to lunge. Very quickly though your dog will hear a car and will come to you for the treat that is great - reward.

Treat them even if they are lunging but make a note and move further away from the vehicles.

That's the nub of it. Key thing is that the dog must see the trigger and THEN receive the treat. The sight of the trigger must predict the treat appearing - not the other way around, otherwise the dog starts to think that treats = trigger, not trigger = treats!

Thank you very much for the replies, they are very helpful and precise. I will start today!