Question:

Our Jack Russell was just about run over the other day. He has always had a thing for cars and runs the fence every time they pass. Which does keep him quite busy since we are on a busy road. But the other day the gate was left open and he went tearing out after a truck. I thought he was a goner and though I thought it was cute behind the fence I see now that this is a real problem. How do I make him lose interest in his favorite past time?

Meagan

ANSWER:

Hi Meagan,

Thank goodness, he was not hit! Miracles do happen each and every day!

Getting control over your Jack is a two fold training program. First part is to get him to respond to your commands perfectly and the second is to desensitize him to traffic with a little aversion training to add to the mix.

If you have not already had him in obedience class, I would do that now. As well as general obedience, I would contact a trainer for one on one session to specifically address a ‘leave it’ or ‘stop’ command. A useful type of command to have with any dog, it can be used for all sorts of things including leaving the neighbor’s cat alone, dropping the shoe that does not belong to him or whatever it is that smells so good to him on the morning walk.

The second part of the program would be to desensitize him to the vehicles. I would walk him with a Halti or Gentle Leader so you have good control of his head and body movement. Walk him around the neighborhood and every time he reacts to a vehicle, give him a sharp correction and a firm ‘no!’. If you can, I would try a body block – something in the dog world that says ‘bug off’. The concept is to get between your dog and whatever it is that has their attention whether it is another dog, a car or a cat. It also works well for things like jumping up – not a big deal with a JR but with a bigger dog, jumping on people can be dangerous. When your dog goes to jump up on you, just walk into them like you did not even see them there. With a sensitive dog like the Toller I work with, one block and she gets the hint. With a less sensitive dog or a puppy, it may take several times to get it through their head that jumping up is not appropriate.

In the case of chasing cars, as one passes and he tries to pursue, get in front of him and say his name then a firm ‘no’. The body block will give greater emphasis to the ‘no’ and he will learn much faster then without.

After all of this extra training and work does not solve the problem, I have one other solution that I only use under life and death situations – a shock collar. I hate using them and I hate to see them misused by people that have no idea how they work but they are effective. Jacks are intelligent but stubborn dogs and your training might not be enough. If that is the case, work with your trainer and a shock collar as aversion training.

As I said, I do not believe in shock collars for regular training but when it is a life or death situation and no other training methods seem to be working, it is the last resort. In the southern States where poisonous snakes are a problem, there are trainers that use shock collars to teach dogs to avoid all snakes – again, a life or death situation. Always use a shock collar under the direction of a trainer who has experience with them and always at the lowest setting that is effective with your dog.