Hi I am new to the forum so I will try my first post. Has anyone any suggestions on how I can stop my 2 year old german shepherd barking at horses when we pass them in the car. He usually hears there hooves on the road first and then launches into barking. I have had to resort to blacking out the rear windows of my estate car to stop him. He is so fixated on the horse that he will not listen to anything. As we seem to have horses all around our area its a problem that won't go away. I worry that one day a horse will be scared of his barking and cause an accident. When he was young he was introduced to horses in our local woods where dog walkers and horses go and he behaved very well when they passed by. So any suggestions would be very welcome.

Hi Peter and welcome. I bet you'll get better answers than mine, but I'll start the ball rolling....

I'd "pretend" he'd never had any previous de-sensitizing to horses and back up to square one, probably using the same techniques you did when he was a pup. Sometimes they just un-learn things. Or new hormones kick in as they mature and they have more territorial instincts. I don't know. But I do know that it happens. It did with mine.

The basic rule for any de-sensitizing is to start far enough away from the thing that causes the reaction (horse) so that the dog doesn't react. (i.e. observing a horse from a distance...or driving with the dog past a field where there are horses in the distance, but not too close.)

If that goes okay, you praise and treat. And then on the next attempt you move just a bit closer. You keep this up--taking small steps of progress until the dog doesn't react to the "thing" any more--he has become desensitized to thinking that it is an abnormal thing in his world.

But if at any point the dog reacts, then you know you've gone too close, too fast and you have to back up to the previous comfortable stage.

I don't think there's any way you can do anything meaningful in the car while you're driving. You'd cause a wreck trying to train a dog and drive at the same time.

Again, welcome. I'd love to see a photo of your GSD.

Hi, Peter,

I sure do agree with what Tracy is describing for desensitizing.

Do you have a way to work with the dog around horses (they don't have to be close, and in fact you wouldn't start close).

Even a place off the side of a roadway where you know horses will pass? (You would start far enough away so the horses do NOT trigger the reactivity.)

Tell us what you have to work with, and whether you are marker training.

 Quote: Tracy Collins

.... I don't think there's any way you can do anything meaningful in the car while you're driving.

Ditto. You will want focus/engagement between you and the dog.

Firstly thankyou for the welcome and for replying to my question.

I can see that desensitizing could be very worth while trying there are a few places around my area that we could park with ample distance away from the horses that graze in the fields and often walk down the road making sure we dont get to close.

Since discovering leerburg and this forum which by the way I wish I had found when we first got him, we could have done things so differently, but anyway never to late I hope as I purchased Basic dog obedience, Pack Structure with the family pet and Training with Markers which has already made a big difference to his behaviour. I am at the stage where I am using distractions. He is doing very well with this method and really enjoys the training.

He is a high energy dog and loves to swim which drains some of his energy and helps keep him out of mischief.

I will put your advice into practice as soon as we can and let you know if your advice helps us, if you have anything to add that you think will help then please let me know.

Oh and by the way Tracy I love the photo of your pack and I will post a photo of our GSD as soon as I find out how to do it.

Last first: do you have a Photobucket-type account? They are free. You can link us to a Photobucket picture very simply.

About distractions: you would think of the horses as a very high-level distraction .... that is, you would add them to your marker sessions (only at a non-reactive distance, as kind of background "stuff") after you have mastered getting solid focus on you and your upbeat marker work, as Tracy outlined above.

There's no doubt that this kind of desensitizing works. I speak from a good amount of experience, from vacuum cleaners to motorized wheelchairs to skate boards, to quite a bit of one of the hardest (I think): dog-dog reactivity.

Also, this kind of desensitizing work has so many pluses, from enhanced bond to greater engagement, and of course better ob, which you are working on the whole time.

You are so right about the exercise, too! Frustrated energy build-up just exacerbates reactivity to the nth degree.