Hi Carol;
just wanted to drop you a quick line. I am tied up today and part of this evening. So it will take me a bit to answer your question.
I also was hoping that you might consider coming to the seminar I'm giving in Wooster Ohio. Would be a lot of fun and I really believe that you would benefit from it!!!!!
Let me know,
ROni

I am going to be in South Carolina teaching a cadaver course otherwise I would LOVE to attend the seminar.
I am still trying to see what dates I can send you to see if I can come to your place as well.

This year is busy since I have been asked to teach at some seminars for SAR (which I am totally excited about!!)

Thanks for getting back with me though, and take your time, I am just keeping Em away from moving things with motors.

Help with Chasing Cars

I do not mean to be a pest at all, but was wondering if you forgot about this one? \:\)

Hi Carol;
Yes I did and I am so very sorry.
This is a difficult subject to help with considering the severity of the consequences of car chasing and just what is going on with the dog.
Two things that come to mind when a dog reacts to cars is fear
and prey drive. Fear is a desensitization situation and redirecting focus. Prey drive and cars is also a desensitiztion
along with teaching focus and what to do with that drive. It would be helpful for the handler to anticipate when the response is coming and head it "off at the pass" so to speak.
Is Ember responding to parked cars, moving cars, cars (engines running)fast cars, slow cars. How is her demeanor otherwise?
Basically, I want to be very fair to the dog. Does she deserve a correction? Will she understand what the correction is for?
Is she out of control with her prey drive in other areas. Or, is this a Malinois thing? Is she sensitive to other things in her environment? Lots of questions I know but necessary.
thanks,
Roni

When she sees a moving vehicle she is ears up, tail up and curled and a high pitched bark and she is forward with her body. No hackles and no hesitation at all.

Non-moving vehicles she could care less about. Does not pay attention to them unless we are loading and then she jumps in.

I have seen the cars coming before her and have had her attention and once she hears it, all is lost so to speak. She just goes into ignore mode and if I try to bring her to me, she gets pissy. Last time she left four holes in me left forearm since I tried the prong collar.

I am not sure she will understand what the correction is for at this point. She knows what "NO" means and responds to it well when trying to jump up, grab my clothes, focus on the cat or another dog and other "normal" things you would tell a dog "NO" for.

She is VERY prey driven and sometimes she does get out of control, but I chalk it up to puppiness since she is getting better about focus.

I have taken her everywhere and still do most of the time. I set up treats with people before hand at first and now she does not "spook" at people, tall men with cowboy hats still may get her to bark, but once they remove the hat and kneel down she is a mushy, pet me dog.

Been walking her around town, the park, football fields with joggers and she is doing well with those types of distractions as well. She may look at them, but she does not hackle and bark anymore.

(oh yeah, do you mind if I copy and paste this into the thread. I have had several people ask if this was answered since they are curious on what advice is going to be given?? )

I don't mind if you post,not a problem. Why did you get a hole in your arm? So you doing something with that prong caused her to go into survival mode. Sounds like it to me. Yucky,. You just hit on a unfair correction and why I don't like corrections,
when I am explaining on the internet. What is her food drive like and when you say that she is focused on you, just what does that mean. Is she just looking at you,.....intense stair on her prey object.......(obedience focus). Please elaborate.
Thanks,
R

I corrected her with the prong by Ed's methods in his article for chasing cars....let her self correct and it pissed her off. Yeah, not good at all so I have not done that again.

Her focus when we are working without distractions is: looking at me, chattering her teeth and following me, performs sit, place, look, touch and fuss good. Ears up, tail up and generally happy. Mild distraction like a cat far off that she sees, I say "nien" and she comes back.

I still have her on a long line so we are working on a solid hier and that is going okay as well.

Food drive is great and toy drive is okay....she could give or take a toy unless we are playing tug, then she LOVES it.

Cool, I would first start with working her outside with the car running, playing tug and really being crazy. Maybe two or three minutes. I know this sounds silly, but this is really breaking down the subject.
Next I would start in the drive way, having someone start slowly backing down the drive way, after you have started crazy play with the tug, first time just backing down the driveway. I would have at least 10 sessions of you play with her in the drive
without any movement of the car. Does this make sense?
I would also play with some food rewards using movement like Michael had you do, which in effect ilicits prey drive also.
Hope this helps. Then of course when this looks good you would
progress to the car moving back and forth in the drive and then to the street.
Happy Training!!!!!

AWESOME, I will work on that for a week and get back to you with a progress report...Thank you SO much, I really appreciate it and I totally understand the hesitation in internet training. \:\)

I am just curious, is Ember subject to that 4 wheeler you run the other dogs with? Has she had any exposure to that at all?