Hi

Can anyone help me with my 6 1/2 year old Dobe - he has started barking and trying to chase cars recently - as he is a big boy its quite frightening for people walking down the road. Once he has finished barking at the cars he takes his lead in his mouth and shakes his head constantly (which is rather painful on the arm) I really need to get him out of this habit now its been going on since New Year - I have tried treats, clicker , his ball even raw liver (not nice in the pocket) Nothing seems to get his attention to stop him barking - however its not all cars - only 4 wheel drives and diesels - as far as I know he has not had a fright or any near misses with these cars

How can I stop him doing this as walks are becoming stressful now for both him and me!

Thanks

Hi Poohbear,
My friend had a german shepherd, who started to do the very same thing.
She thought it very odd at the time, as she too, couldn't recall any incidents. She had her dog everywhere, even to a behavioural therapist, because there had been no sign of this behaviour at all, he seemed only to be upset by blue cars, didn't matter what make, but he'd bark, try to hide behind her, wouldn't even walk past a blue car in a car park
Until one day, one of her neighbours told her that she'd seen a little boy waiting in a BLUE car parked up outside her house, and he was shooting peas through one of those pipe things. Obviously he had been trying to hit the dog with them, and I guess he obviously did, as the dog was so stressed out by the sight of a blue car.
But it just shows you, the smallest of incidents, can stress out, even the most calmest of dogs.
She had to revert back to basic training with him, she would take him to carparks, and approach blue cars, when he got stressed out, she would turn and walk away from the car, when he calmed down, he was rewarded, whilst she ignored the stressed out behaviour, she would then turn and walk back to the blue car, until he realised there was nothing to be afraid of.
It took a while, but guess what, now they have a blue car :rolleyes:
Hope this is of some help to you,
Sharon
X
It took a while

Barking is usually a problem with most dogs but I can only really advice upon my own breed, but what I do if I have a barker is bark back at them and they tend to look at you in sheer amazement after all this is the way their mother communicated with the dog to begin with. :-) it is their foreign language try it and see if it works at least :-)

I have had two dogs which have done this would really try & leap out into the road to catch them,one also used to do it in the car would open his mouth & snap as if to catch them ( don't know what was going through his head bless!)  quite scary for you & the driver though. I'm glad to say mine grew out of it they were around the same age as yours when the started too. I put them on a haltis so they were restrained & made them sit until the cars had passed distracting them with treats. It took a while but it paid off!

Hi Poohbear!

Regards getting attention (oh the joy!? when they get tunnel vision,go deaf to you and you feel like even if you turned into a marching band with baton twirlers they'd still ignore you exist!! :D)
   Try going for something to tempt him thats reallllllly smelly as opposed to 'tasty' as that gets the attention more!...Dried liver is good for this as opposed to raw, its less messy too..but Stinks like you wouldnt believe
  Put 'liver cake' in search on here too there's some good recipes (and much nicer than having raw liver in your pockets) and for extra stink value use sardines :D I find Frankfurters good too.
  Put 'chasing cars' in search too, Im sure I remember a few posts recently about this so you'll get more tips there too.
Hope this helps :D

Thanks Guys