Hi all. Sorry this sounds so trivial but having a bit of a problem with my 5 month GR puppy. He has a high prey drive and will chase anything that moves, even if I scuff a little bit of gravel on a walk he pounces on it and won't give up until it's stationary again. He can spend forever watching and pouncing on ants/bees too! I know this is perfectly normal dog behaviour (although I thought a Goldie would be less bothered!) but it's going to become a problem with leaves now the weather's turning. We have a few leaves blowing across the garden today and he's just nearly twisted my elbow out lunging for them. Same if one blows onto the road, he's only on a short lead but he makes sure he puts all effort into running onto the road after it!
Is there anything I can do? He doesn't have great motivations with food or toys (his is the prey drive!) so I can't usually distract him until it's stopped moving. Will the autumn desensitise him to it naturally? We have a big garden with a woodland part so he's going to experience his fair share of leaves this year, usually it's a carpet so I'm thinking perhaps when he can't chase them all he'll give up? Just wondering if there's something I can do to help & stop this lunging into the road business!
Thanks

> Is there anything I can do? He doesn't have great motivations with food or toys (his is the prey drive!)

That prey drive he is displaying is what a dog needs in order to find chasing a toy rewarding :) If you think about it, a piece of gravel is no more an item of actual 'prey' than a toy is :) It's the movement that is getting your pups attention.

I have no idea what the name for them are, but you can get toys that dangle off a string. The toy will be quite floppy, and you can wiggle it around making it look enticing (imagine how one would get a cat to play with a toy hanging off a string).

You can use this drive of his to your advantage, I've not got much experience of this myself, but I'm sure somebody will be along with some good advice.

Yes he loves his ball on a rope, or anything if we wiggle it! I wasn't sure if using his prey drive to distract him from chasing the leaves was a but counterproductive or not... I try and stop him lunging and asking him to sit which he will do (in his own time), and only then playing with a toy, not sure if there is a way to ever work up to ignoring the leaves though? Has anyone been through similar?

It will be very hard to teach your pup not to chase while out on a walk. You need to spend time teaching a really strong "Leave It" command in a controled area before you start to use it out on a walk as if he finds he can still do it and the lesson has not been learned first he will just re-enforce the fact that he can do it. Many pups chase leaves, crisp packs, plastic bags etc.. and wil grow out of it in time but while at home indoors you need to teach the leave it command. (So handy for making him leave those items not needing re-modelling by a chewy pup but without having to corner him to get hold of the item!) I would teach a retrieve with a rolling ball. Let him run and get it without pause untill he will return it to you every time without fail and will "Drop it" into your hand. Then begin to introduce some control. Make him sit and wait untill you have rolled it then send for the retrieve. Once he will do this then you need to pop a light lead on and send him out to retrieve but give the command to "leave it" and halt him with the lead and recall him. Do one "Leave it" retrieve to 6  when you let him go so as not to spoil the fun. It is a command that is very good for stopping all kinds of chasing if you put loads of work in and get it right. I think there needs to be a really strong difference between Drop and Leave. (or whatever commands you choose to use) If you just teach a leave it for retrieve as well then his mind will not realize the difference and he will retrieve the leaf and bring it to you and this is not what you want at all.
Your control of his lead walking will follow on from this and eventually a "Leave it" will have him stopping in his tracks.
Good luck
Aileen

> I wasn't sure if using his prey drive to distract him from chasing the leaves was a but counterproductive or not.

No, it's perfect :) It teaches him what he can focus his attention on and better still, if done right you can use it to get his attention, teach him that as YOU controll his favorite game then YOU are worthy of attention :) and also it is the perfect reward for him, so you can use it to teach all the behaviours you want :)
When a dog has a strong desire to do a certain behaviour (in your pups case, that's chase an object), it's better to harness that desire and redirect it onto something appropraite, rather than trying to stop the beahviour all together.

If you, and the toy you have, are more fun than blowing leaves and flying gravel, you can get his attention and teach him anything you want :)

Possibly the "wiggly toy" idea Mastifflover has is the one where you encourage the dog to chase and try and catch the toy but it must never ever actually get it, this is what makes the toy so desirable, you ask for a sit, then bring out the super exciting toy and play with it for only 30 seconds or so, then whip the toy away and ask for another sit, when the dog sits you bring out the toy again. so calm attentive behaviour gets the toy reward. It takes more practise than you'd imagine to not let the dog get the toy, you have to be damned quick. I used it for one of mine to help deal with her dog aggression. A fishing rod type cat toy works well as in theory the dog never gets the toy so it doesn't have to be robust, just small enough so it's easy to have out on a walk.

Thank you Merlot and everyone else - will definitely try my best with him, he's a good retriever most of the time(!) so will work on that first (will a gundog book help??). Also he's very good with 'off' but we've used it for both relinquishing a toy (he doesn't 'drop' as such) and leaving an object, so that might have to change. He's only young though and very willing to please. Funny thing is he's excellent walking on a loose lead, and so I have to watch out for the gusts of wind that will catch me out!
Will work on the send and retrieve, and hope he'll be able to get out of the chasing anything that moves stage.
Does anyone think Autumn will naturally do the job for me - in that there'll be so many leaves that he can't chase them all and will eventually get bored? Or will walks just become an absolute nightmare?? As I doubt there'll be time to teach him everything perfectly before it hits!
Thanks, Rachel