also have a look at: Toby
I met Amelia and Ruby her 1 year old Collie/Lab while out walking one day. Ruby was pulling very hard on the lead but Amelia’s main concern was that Ruby lunged at passing cars, busses and lorries and they lived in town!
Car chasing is a very common and dangerous problem with the Collie type dogs and dog owners often just live with the behaviour thinking nothing can be done about it or resort to putting their dog in the car and driving out into the countryside to exercise them, which is not always convenient.
I did a house visit on Amelia and Ruby where we firstly addressed the heal work, finding the right collar for Ruby to enable her to walk nicely beside Amelia. We then took ruby for a walk alongside the very busy High street traffic where Ruby instantly lunged at any loud of large vehicle, she was completely obsessed with chasing it and it really was just an accident waiting to happen. We addressed the problem there and the n with some new commands and rules and practised in some other buy streets to just make sure the chasing behaviour wasn’t associated to one area only.
Ruby took on board her new routine very quickly and Amelia was determined to continue with the progress we had made. Amelia e-mailed me recently and this is what she had to say:
Thank you very much for coming and helping me with Ruby’s habit of trying to chase cars and her constant pulling on the lead. She had got so bad that I was avoiding walking down the road with her and began driving to walks instead. When you said you could cure it in ten minutes I was very sceptical as I had been trying everything for months. But after one session with your help I can now walk right passed cars without Ruby even looking at them, and she used to lurch right at them, making contact if she could, so it is an amazing transformation in such a short time. I can do the walk to school in the morning and then go on for a nice walk by the river in a civilized manner without everybody staring at me! I feel much safer and in control of her now and I am sure you have saved me from having a dislocated shoulder! Ruby is just recovering from her spade operation and then I think I will book another session to see if we can master getting her back on the lead at the end of a walk because she has become wise to all of my tricks and I want to get it sorted before it becomes a problem. Then she will be perfectish!”
Thanks a lot Amelia.