Tonight my Cody (who by the way is doing very well now) saw a cat outside in our driveway. He was in the house and went nuts barking after it, along with the other dogs. I got the dogs attention and had them run to their mat. I did this because Cody ran into the living room and jumped up on the furniture and a table to get a look at the cat that walked along our driveway.(something he has been taught not to do) the other dogs went to the mat, cody was going balistic after the cat. I had to grab him and pull him off the furniture and he was barking so loud he didn't hear my commands or he just didn't obey them. Once on his mat he sat and cried and cried and moaned and moaned and got so upset his stomach became upset and he started to have what looks like acid reflux, he was almost vomiting. My Question is, how can I help him calm down. He was upset for about 30 minutes but he did stay on his mat during that time. Do you have any ideas of what I can do to help him calm himself down. He has a very, very high prey drive. when outside he rarely plays but spends his time hunting and chasing whatever he can flush out, rabbits lizards birds. The only thing that distracts him from that is training, which he loves to do.
Thanks for your help I want to help him to learn to wind down but i do not know how to do that with him. My other dogs calm down pretty easy.
Sharon

If training gives him focus & takes his mind off of the prey item & out of that excited state of mind.....take him from the window & do some OB with him for a few minutes to let him decompress & return to a calm state of mind & then send him to his place.

Mine do the same thing...I remove them from the window & send them to their beds. This allows the excited state of mind to pass & when it does then I will release them. Usually, just nipping it in the bud just short circuits it. By the same token my dogs are also there to alert me & act as a deterrent to any ill-intented persons. So I want them to bark. It is the freinzied barking that I want to minimize. On the upside, most salesman will bypass my house.

My male almost went thru the window yesterday when someone went by in a rain slicker with the hood pulled up (they've seen that before)..but the real trigger was that the person stopped in front on my house & just stared at the house for about a minute (I assume was watching the dogs barking & going nuts). This was the worse that I have ever seen...as cats go by in yards across the street & other dogs are walked on the other side of the street(no side walk on my side,thank god)& I have never had this kind of reaction before both dogs but especially him. Walked over took him from the window...had him try to redirect on my female..not allowed here..sent them BOTH to their beds to chill.

I usually would nip it in the bud but I was in the bedroom when this started & could not get there before they had ramped it up to a fever pitch. But I could see the woman standing there even until I had removed the dogs. I guess that she was facinated by the 'show'.

I tried something new with Jethro last night when a raccoon was crossing the street and he was going ballistic. Instead of yanking him down off the window I went up and stood beside him and said, "What is it?" and looked out carefully to see what he was looking at. Within seconds he was standing there quietly looking with me. I told him to Wait and he relaxed slightly. I then talked to him in a quiet voice about what we were looking at, how it was Okay (he relaxed again). I said Than You, and he lay down. I was blown away.

Before when he would bark I would get so aroused and upset I would come rushing in and yank him away and take him to his crate. I was just so fed up with the barking at stuff outside. But this time I tried a different interpretation. I was interpreting his barking frenzy as prey drive, this time I interpreted it as guarding drive. I wasn't upset because I knew there wasn't anything to worry about. I let him know that I saw what he saw and that it was not a threat. I stayed calm, I wasn't frustrated. He settled down again.

It was a big breakthrough for me, in understanding my dog and what he needs. We did a few more exercises at the window, looking and commenting on what we were seeing. And then, he just slept.

Sometimes I want certain characters out on the corner to know there is a large, barking dog in the house. Jethro has cut down drug dealing and prostitution at our corner by 100%. It just isn't happening out there anymore.