My 11 month old staff is loving gentle dog as soft as they come. Though recently he has decided that cycliests are fun to chase and he becomes aggresive towards them growling, showing his teeth, back up and will not return when called (normally does).
He does not have to be near them to do this he just has to see them coming.If in the fields and he sees them first he will run up to them getting in their path and most are scared he will bit them and i am worried he will one day as i dont want to lose him.
He has tried to jump out of my car window on more than one occasion to get at them has anyone any ides to help me.
I have had him from 8weeks old and he started this about 4 months ago

has she ever had an incident with a bike? to elaborate i mean have any kids tormented her whilst on a bike or ran into her or something similar?

My partners aunts dog was knocked over by a lorry. She wasn't badly hurt went straight under the centre of the lorry. Very lucky!!

Now whenever she sees a lorry she goes mad growling and barking!

Our 15mth old Ridgey has suddenly developed a similar behaviour - no growling but tries to chase and starts to bark - we hold on the lead for dear life! He has been ok up to now - wouldn't say he's been fine with them , but there is a noticeable development in his behaviour. WE have started to avoid cyclists - we put him on the lead if we see them first - we have a lot of cyclists where we live . Don't think he has had a bad experience - unless they have startled him when he hasn't been concentrating - I think it is just that excited children have passed by the house screaming and giggling - which has started all this.

We have spoken to our trainer who has recommended trying training discs to distract and interrupt the behaviour. If your staff is off the lead he will be self rewarding by running over to the cyclist - so you may need to keep him on lead for a while - otherwise you will never have a chance to stop the behaviour.

We are goign to put a bike in th garden so he can look at is , and we are going to ride around on one too. The trainer has also offerd to come to us to show us how to use training disc's if the desensitising doesn't prove successful. We will stage a reinactment of a cyclist passing by - so she can see exactly what he does. If that doesn't work she has suggested we might have to try using a special humane collar which has a remote control spray within it which can be activated to release citronella spray. Again the idea is to interrupt the behaviour.

WE will try each stage if necessary , but we are hoping to get success early on by desensitising him.

Nikki

Does he have a favourite treat? Be it food or a toy? Well, we had a problem with dog aggression, but this may work for your problem too, there is an exercise you could try if you see a cycle heading your way, needs a bit of practice at home first though:

Rubys fav thing in the world is her ball, she will do ANYTHING for that ball
Well, a behaviourist we saw spent ages working with two balls, Ruby on the lead. We had to roll a ball in front of Ruby, keeping her fav one behind her. When she went for the other ball we held her still and gently said 'off', repeating it until she loosened the lead and turned away from the other 'rogue' ball. As soon as she did this she was rewarded by her fav ball being given to her. We repeated this exercise many times until she came to recognise that the word 'off' ment she was going to get a reward. You could do the same exercise with a fav snack or other treat.

Next step was to hold her infront of a door where she could see other dogs walking past. As soon as she saw one and started to bark and pull we would gently say 'off', as we did with the ball exercise. Then as soon as she stops barking and turns away from the other dog, reward with the ball, or treat. Keep on doing this and the dog will associate the word 'off' with her special treat. This hopefully will condition her that when she sees another dog, if she ignores it she may get a reward

So far, it is working a treat for us. I always carry her ball in my pocket, and have tried it a few times on our walks, it takes time and patience but it DOES seem to be working!

Hopefully, your dog will come to associate an approaching bike with a possible reward if he ignores it. Try it with a friend approaching on a bike for a few practice runs!

Hope this may help you, and good luck!

Helen