Still lunging at cars

Tried everything over the past few days and Densil is still lunging at cars. A couple of times he has jumped up so hard that he has fallen over whilst I am trying to restrain him. He is really worrying me now. As soon as we go out of the gate in the morning he seems to be looking for cars straight away. I've tried treats, squeaky toys, funny noises and nothing seems to work. seriously considering something like a shock collar as it is getting dangerous now out on walks.

how about some roadside training , sit and calm , with treats for praise rather than walking and distraction techniques ??

Thanks, but the trouble is I cannot get him to sit and stay (he has learned the sit command at training classes, but not stay)- he is looking up the road waiting for cars and getting himself physiced up and ready for them. I have got him attached to a harness with a double ended lead, and also a head halter with a lead because he is so strong I am struggling to hang on to him. He is a rescue dog who is nearly 4 years old, so I do not know what sort of past he has had. I only know he was fine with traffic for 9 months and this has come completely out of the blue, but it is worrying me to the extent that I am now frightened to take him out of the house.

so first thing I would say is to master sit and stay , do this in somewhere quieter before he is exposed to the road , take him out at quieter times of the day to get him where you need him but you can also train stay in the house

The thing we're doing with my dog at the moment is i say leave and if she doesn't react we give her a treat. She actually looks up for the treat now even if i dont say leave.

Agree with Dave, mastering the sit and stay and maybe leave or watch me with your dogs most favourite treat in the world, start with quiet traffic first and build up.

Good luck, maybe your rescue dog is getting more confident and thats why the troubles starting.

You need to build up slowly & desensitise him to traffic. It's a shame you can't put your finger on what's made him do this, because that could make it a bit easier to deal with.

Try this...
Take him out, go to the road & get him to sit at the kerb. Let one car go by, telling him "sit" all the time, and then go back to somewhere quiet. Do a bit of training to calm him down & then try again. This time, see if you can get two cars to pass without a reaction. If at any time he appears to be getting agitated, go back to the quiet place & do a bit of training.

At all times you must remain calm & quiet, but firm. Your attitude mustn't show any fear or anxiety as that will be passed on to him. Just breath deeply & slowly & keep your voice level & as quiet as you can - only loud enough to be heard above traffic.

It'll take a while, but you should start to see signs of improvement.

Thanks for the replies. I have been advised he is doing it out of fear and that I need to distract him with treats. problem is whichever way I go when I leave my house we have cars passing, so in order to get to a quiet place we have to run the gauntlet. yesterday I had 2 pockets full of treats which I distracted him with until we got to a green area where I let him roam on a long lead (He looked at the cars but didn't react) . Coming back I ran out of treats and he started going for them again, so guess I'll have to get bigger pockets, lol.

Would the green area be classed as a quiet place? If so, then walk briskly there & try the desenstization from there!

Yes Caryll green area is a quiet space - where there are NO cars! I do walk there as briskly as I can. I am looking around to see where I can go where there are just a few cars now and then and I will just stand with him to get him used to them again. At the moment he has gone on a little holiday for a couple of days with the dog sitters - just so he gets used to them when we go away on holiday. I haven't heard from them apart from day 1, when they said he didn't lunge at the cars at all with them, but I think this may be because it is new surroundings. He will be back tomorrow so will see how it goes.

Good Morning, you could try a Halti, used properly this may deter him from lunging.

Anne

The green is an ideal place to retreat to when you're desensitising him. The quiet place should be just that - quiet, so that he can wind down from his anxiety.

Panda wrote:Good Morning, you could try a Halti, used properly this may deter him from lunging.

Anne

Hi, I use a halti and a harness with double ended lead, when walking him. It's the only way I can hold on to him as he is very strong and pulls on the lead anway. I have to start training him not to pull and have been told I need to stop every time he pulls and wait for the lead to go loose, however I can't start to do that until we have sorted out the car problem. I have just ordered a dogmatic, which is similar to a halti and will see how this goes.

First day back from his mini holiday. He didn't get much in the way of walks today because of the rain - he will not go out in it! However, managed to get him out for 1 walk and was amazed at how many cars were around even on a Sunday. Anyway took 2 pocketfuls of boiled chicken pieces.

When we got to the end of the road he just froze and wouldn't move for about 10 minutes. Every time a car approached I said "car and gave him a treat and then said "good". He still eyed the car as it went by, but he didn't lunge or squeal. However he was shaking like a leaf and I couldn't get him to move on - tried throwing treats a bit further up and whistling noises. In the end I got my mobile phone out and played some ring call sounds and he started walking on as though nothing had happened, lol

Just to update on the car problem - I have been distracting him with treats when a car goes by and he has now got to the stage where he will sometimes ignore them if he has found something better to smell. He has not been lunging, jumping and squealing like he used to.

so, I decided to try to take him for a walk where we used to go and where he first started getting stressed - BAD IDEA. Halfway round he jumped up at a car and before we had got back he was jumping and crying at the traffic and really stressed. So, next day went back to the normal area i have been walking him and he was fine. So it is obvious he associates that particular area with something bad and that was contributing to his behaviour. I can feel he is still anxious but he will now turn and look at me in the eyes and I reward him with a treat for ignoring the car. Now trying to wean him off the treats by only giving it every other time and just saying "good".