I am in the process of exposing my 13 week old Dutch Shepherd to many different sights, sounds, etc. I take him for walks to all kinds of places. When I walk him down a main street sidewalk he tries to chase the cars as they go by. I understand this is prey drive. I don't want him to get into this type of a bad habit. I am worried about car chasing latter on when he matures. When I correct him with a jerk on the leash he could care less. Should I be using a puppy prong collar or just hope he outgrows it. This has only happened twice now but it is two days in a row. I had no trouble with him before this. The strange thing about the last two days is that it is raining. I suspect it has something to do with the noise the tires make on wet pavement.

This may or may not be wet pavement noise, but you are absolutely right in keeping this in check now. Handle it matter of factly (no heightened emotion, etc) and bring a toy, tasty treats, whatever it takes to get and keep the pup's focus back to you and you alone, time and time again. So critical with cars. I lived with a dog who imprinted early (5 months or so) that cars were "the thing to do". Took a while to undo...good luck to you.

The problem is that there is steady traffic. There are cars every couple of seconds and he tries to chase every one of them. I would end up feeding him nonstop. Any other ideas.

I'm sure there are other threads with information if you do a search (I know of at least ONE in which they call the dog chasing cars the "redneck run" (EEK) But anyway, I'd take the dog to a remote street where there are one or 2 cars going slowly (residential) and desensitize him there. Then work slowly back up to where it all began. If you cannot control this behaviour on the busy street, he WILL learn HE controls the situation and you WILL have a big problem later.

Again, start small, work up. Corrections, IMO are out of the question with pup 13 weeks! The world is a brand new place for him.

Oh, and again, PERFECT opportunity for you to refocus that prey drive into his toy/ball, whatever. Does he have a toy he likes?

Edited by Michele McAtee (08/21/2007 07:50 AM)
Edit reason: corrections

Lee,
At 50 years old, I just got my first GSD. She is 16 weeks old today.
I had a similar issue with her when I got her @ 9 weeks. She absolutely freaked out at automatic opening sliding glass doors. This was during "socialization" trips. When I saw her do it the first time, I knew I had to get a grip on it right away. I totally relaxed,(inside myself), then she and I went through those doors about 40 times! I wanted to make sure the "freakout factor" was eliminated totally. I never spoke a word during this, just behaved as her pack leader, and treated her as she calmed down.
Four weeks later, she did the same thing to cars on our daily walks in my neighborhood. She just started this behavior all of a sudden. Once again, it was up to me to ensure her "freakout" behavior stopped immediately for both our sakes!
The next morning, and for 3 consecutive days, we went to my downtown area-loaded with constant traffic of cars and people alike. We walked and walked. All the while, when I said "leave it" & "good quiet", I was treating her out of one of those goofy fanny packs.
Granted, all of this is a lot of work, however; even just having my dog for 7 weeks, and following these methods with focused consistancy is well worth every minute spent between you and your dog. If you study this board, and read Cesar's books, there is nothing to be gained but tried and true methods for success.
Not that I am any expert by any means, but all of this works for me and my dog.
Good luck!

Thanks for the suggestions. I have never had this problem before. I have previously owned working bloodline Rotts and GSD for many years. I really like the suggestion to start out on a quieter street. Sometimes you don't think of the most obvious. A quieter street gives me the opportunity to refocus him. I just found something on Ed's Q&A for puppies. He recommended a puppy prong collar for someone with the same issues. I don't know the age of that pup in the Q&A. I agree a prong collar should be the very last resort for a pup just 3 months old. But I also believe this problem needs to be dealt with soon because it is potentially a life or death situation. At this stage of my life I have plenty of time to concentrate on it and will try every other alternative.

I like the quiet street suggestion very much.

Yes ... I believe that you have to build up to it gradually.

I'm working on the distraction phase (which I think is a lifelong thing now) of training ... now. I started out by adding my little niece to our nightly walk ... would put the pup into a Sit-Stay or a Down-Stay and then let her dance around. She was a HUGE distraction to him, and I wasn't sure he was going to be able to handle it, but he did. So we did that for several nights over the course of a few weeks.

Now, I'm bringing him to more busy areas with people he doesn't know. I'm also adding the "stays" inside ... in the Kitchen, where he would normally be crated.

My point is ... BABY STEPS. And sometimes it seems like it takes forever to make it through the Baby Steps ... so I would try the non-busy street progression route.

We're at 9 months old now ... and I have to remember that some experiences are still new.

good luck!

 Quote:

I'm sure there are other threads with information if you do a search (I know of at least ONE in which they call the dog chasing cars the "redneck run" (EEK)

If you are talking about the thread I started with the name "The Red Neck Run" I think you will find it is not about car chasing at all. Unless you consider excersising your dogs with a snowmobile or quad, snowmoblile chasing or quad chasing.

http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/146036/page/0/fpart/2

Although excersising a dog with a car or truck is dangerous and I would not recommend it to anyone, it has worked out for me very well since the posting in the very limited circumstance I was inquiring about. I understand completely that others find this to be way too risky and I appreciate their honesty. In the end we all make decisions we can live with. Farley and I have worked out a system I feel is safe

Please note that my dog does not chase cars! Runnining with my car on the way up a certain section of dirt road has not made him want to chase cars all of a sudden either. He did however have the inclination to chase them at a certain point as a young pup and it freaked me out as it does the op. I used the Mike Arnold method to solve it. I might have also given him a little slack with a martengale on and let him self correct a bit, but in the end what Mike said is what worked for me.

Ta Ta