Channels

I am going to share my own, real world experience, expectations and outcome with my 12 year old (but young) car chasing thug, Titan.

A brief background and known info to set the stage for my scenario; adopted at 9 years old from euthanasia list (from a shelter I volunteer at), found as emaciated stray (from NC) but had microchip/vet records first 5 years of his life, car chasing noted in his file, a strong puller, has very clear predatory body language with a strong predatory sequence, motivated by outside environment over food (if inside, food wins!), 72 LBS, DNA test revealed APBT, Am Staff terrier and Chow!

Some of my challenges were; he was 9 years old already with a behavior that was likely reinforced a long time, likely an innate behavior, the environment is a reinforcer for him, (scents, slightest movements), little to no food motivation once outside and would “ignore me”, not toy motivated at all for having a prey drive, very confident and independent personality, to name a few.

It was hard to find a motivator once outside. He listens seemingly perfectly in the house but once that door opened, he literally focused on the outside, pulled as hard as he could, nose to the ground. When he heard a car or truck (the bigger the vehicle, the bigger the reaction), he would orient, stare, assume the prey bow position and wait for its approach and launch! A noted setback was that once the first chase occurred, he would be amped up anticipating the next and the opportunity to learn was diminished. It was a cycle that was hard to break.

I tried many approaches from Premack, engage/disengage, DS/CC, food scatters, putting treat right on his nose/in his mouth to distract. So what worked for me? A little and a lot of all of it in some combination!

Some trouble shooting that was needed was how to use the environment that influenced him. Over a lot of time, I used DS/CC to minimize his reactions outside. I used the environment for food scatters of hot dogs to engage his nose for scent work while walking. I used Premack and engage/disengage to keep moving/sniffing on LLW walks, I put the food right at his nose/mouth to slow feed as a distraction and to keep him moving or turn-to keep him from going over threshold.

My real expectation is; that I may never fully extinguish this behavior, if innate. After all, he is a dog with likely strong predatory genetics. I have accepted Titan for who he is as a dog and his needs. Titan and I have learned to mostly manage them together as a team. Today, almost 3 years after adopting him, together we have reduced the number of reactions and intensity overall and to me, that is his/our success story!