Chasing bicycles and small animals!!

[Cando]

I have a 13 month old Dobermann who will obey all comands off leash, including come when called...UNLESS.....she sees a bike or other small animal, at which point she will chase them for miles and be unresponsive to any recall comands, treats, toys etc....

She gets so fixated and nothing we have tried can change that. Let me add that she is very well trained in all other aspects, and she does come when called at all other times since we have put a lot of training into that command.

Is this something that can't be trained out of a dog? We have even thought of trying shock collars, but dont want to resort to that unless we have to, and even then we would educate ourselves and definately make sure it is used correctly.

I should also add that we normally walk off leash in off leash dog parks and we try to stay away from any major streets, but she does love to chase down any bikers that might go by and bark at them which scares the hell out of the poor bikers (even though when they stop she licks them and wants to play).

I know some would say that an easy solution would be to just keep her on leash and use correction, but if there is any way to train her to be off leash and have her not run off and chase bikes or animals we would really appriciate any advice?

 

[hedwig]

im trying to find out the same. my dog chases anything cars bikes animals people or dogs and completely ignores any type of recall

 

[Brandyb]

You need to proof your recall under all situations that you feel may occur while your dog is off leash. Just because she has a solid recall when playing in a field, doesn't mean it will be the same when passing cyclists or pedestrians. Dogs are contextual learners, meaning that as soon as you take a command and use it in a different surround or under more distraction, the command must be re-learned again for that particular instance.
This habit of chasing bikes can be dangerous for both your dog and the cyclist. I'm not in anyway afraid of dogs, but if I was riding my bike in a park and a dog was chasing me, I'd be pretty upset (and I had a dobe, so I know how others can react to the breed).
This needs to be nipped in the butt right away. Go back to the basics and retrain the recall and attention under the distractions that are making her loose her focus off of you. Start off with a 6 foot lead and go up from there. ALWAYS have treats or toys (some sort of reward) with you while you are on walks. You need to start at a minimum distance and work up from there. Reward reward reward when you get the desired response. Hold the leash until you feel she has made improvements, then allow the leash to drag, and move back down to the shorter leashed until you have none at all. Recall training under distraction can be difficult, so make the reward something she is REALLY excited about, and use that reward soley for recalls. Hope this helps a bit.