Car Chaser Help

maui

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#1
Help.

Our guy, Ranger, is getting better, but it's so slow going on this one. I'm wondering if I'm doing it wrong. He is excited by cars. Especially cars moving along an otherwise quiet street. In the city? He's fine, just walks along looking for pigeons.

What we do now is shuttle him over to the side of the road (no sidewalks) and he does a sit and stay or sit and wait. He generally gets cookies. Then we proceed. Sometimes that is how it happens. Other times...

He is sitting and waiting... he gets up and lunges for the back tires. I have a small heart attack. He does not get the cookies. Lately my hand is hovering just over the collar, just in case. Occasionally I have also mixed it up with an "Easy" (no pulling allowed) command while we are walking (way over in the grass) on a very short leash.

Also of note... We switched off the gentle leader because, other than the car issue, his pulling is controllable with the "easy" command. His behavior around the cars is the same, gentle leader or not.

I see an occasional improvement. But, it's taking forever! He's 2. We've had him for 1 year & 9 months. We do not practice in winter much. Does anyone have any tips, help, critiques, eek!

Thanks! -Maui
 

maui

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#3
Ranger is a Border Collie, Pointer, ? mix. Maybe Greyhound, or Doberman. He has a "calm" gene absent in Border Collies and Pointers.

He runs like a Greyhound and has the Doberman eyebrows. But, he could be a tri-color Border Collie and not Doberman at all.

Thanks for the help Renee!
 

maui

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#5
Yes, he's on the leash. But we don't allow him to pull, so I don't keep the leash tight, just short. I am trying to keep him close enough to the street to be safe, but keep it realistic for a walk. I don't want to get in the habit of walking 25 feet onto the neighbors yard to get away from cars.

I want him to "Choose" to NOT chase the car. I keep my hand hovering over his collar because he doesn't give a good warning he is going to lunge. It's there when I am asking him to do a wait. But, if we're doing tricks as the car goes by, then my hand is busy with signals, cookies, etc. I try to mix it up.

When we try to just walk normally (as if the car isn't there) it can be a bit of a disaster.

Maybe he can tell I'm nervous about it?

eek!
 

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