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This is my first time posting! Thank you for your ears!

At our nonprofit we only work with rescued dogs, 90% of which have missed critical socialization periods and have reactivity to, well, sadly just about everything. Their backgrounds tend to stir our creative juices around coaching.

For those that need coaching with car chasing type activities, as with the Sheltie Story, I can add a technique we have had some success with in the past. This is far from the great technically savvy advice others have offered up (so please forgive the somewhat kooky slant of what I will share) but sometimes one has to just get creative when traditional methods are not pushing progress forward.

With a few of our canine clients (and I suspect not everyone has access to this type of equipment) we have employed the use of those kiddie type cars to begin desensitization techniques in areas of low distraction (i.e. a home, basement, backyard, etc.). Many even come with a remote control component (as believe me I couldn’t fit into one of them). We are big believers in baby-stepping just about everything with the rescued dogs we see and we have had some success with this type of rather “kooky” approach. For families too, having an appropriate aged child who can follow directions and drive the car, can lay the foundation to incorporate children to take interest in, and become an active part of a dogs training plan.

As an aside: We always start with many of the management practices others have mentioned. We also advise that once we move from indoors to outdoor training that a tracking device or micro-chipping would add an additional layer of safe return should the dog, once in flight, continue movement away from the home.