A dog’s chasing behavior is not only tiresome and annoying, but it also poses real danger to your dog. Some dogs love to chase cars, squirrels or cats, but this should be stopped as this behavior can give you a hard time while spending nice morning walks with your dog, and you will only end up tying it up all the time. A dog’s chasing behavior needs to be arrested right at the very beginning, otherwise it will interfere with you and your dog’s opportunity to go out for walks together.
The Basic Retraining Methods
Basic retraining with the use of the leash is one of the primary approaches in resolving dog chasing issues. Retraining your dog with the use of the leash involves the execution of other basic commands as part of re-forming your dog’s behavior. It really helps a lot to retrain the dog if its obsession for chasing is not too extreme.
As a general rule, make sure that you have the dog’s total attention and focus during each retraining session. Impose your authority as the alpha leader in order to exercise control over your dog. Always see to it that before you start to move, it is always looking at you. It is impossible to teach a dog if its eyes are fixed on something else.
A dog that is lacking in focus is harder to retrain than attentive ones. A Dog that pulls on the leash should be made to sit and wait. Allow it to move only at your signal. If it insists on pulling, you should stop walking and order the dog to sit beside you. After a few occurrences, the dog will soon learn to associate its pulling with stopping. If a treat is necessary to reinforce the dog’s behavior as it obeys, you can do it.
Use a toy to distract the dog when it chases anything. Throwing the toy out will divert the dog’s attention and chase it instead. You should know that this will not stop the dog’s chasing habit; you are actually teaching your dog that there are some specific things the chasing of which are not allowed.
Another way to stop dog chasing is the water bottle approach. Let the dog chase somebody, or someone on a bicycle. As the dog chases him, let him stop, say “NO” and spray the dog with the water bottle. This should teach the dog that chasing or catching anything is not acceptable. However, there are dogs that don’t like this idea, and grow angry at the water bottle instead.
Avoiding Extreme Measures
The use of extreme methods, like using shock collars or electric fences in stopping a dog from chasing is overkill. Those are inhumane ways and they don’t always work. A dog that is really obsessed with chasing actually needs an expert’s intervention and help.
Always bear in mind that a dog’s chasing behavior will always subject it to potential dangers, most especially if it gets off the leash. Stopping a dog from chasing will be your way of protecting your dog from potential harm. It will give you the confidence to take the dog out for walks in the park or when you are simply going out to breathe some fresh air and get some morning exercise.