I would like your advice for a problem my dog Panu has with a specific pick up car. First a bit background: Panu was born to a barrel dog (=dogs which are held on chain at the farming roads in southern countries) and lived the first 2 months with his mother. During this time he got terrified by farmer cars passing there and by farmers kicking him away when he was playing on the road with his brother who probably got killed by a car in front of Panu. I took him to me when he was 7-8 weeks old. He was an intelligent and brave puppy but when he grew older he began to attack cars and males. He had a fear aggression and if he could not escape he bit (snapped). I have been working with him on his problems now two years using only positive methods and doing counter condition and desensitization by feeding him every time when he got excited. His fear aggression is now practically no more existent and he let 95% of cars pass us on our walks without any reaction (sometimes he looks at me then asking for reinforcement) and 4% of disturbing cars let him only lunge out and bark shortly but one farmer car (Nissan Navarra) is a real problem: The farmer concerned has a hunting dog same-aged with Panu. This dog was trained by electroshock collar. Once, when the dogs were about 12 months old, the hunting dog wanted to play with Panu and jumped down from the pickup car. His owner lost his rag and commanded his dog back onto the car cholerically pressing the button of the electro shocker at least ten times. The dog cried and screamed of fear and pain and Panu seeing this got petrified beside me. I was petrified too. After this experience Panu panics by this car. During the first two years he reacted soon when he heard the car – even the car was almost 1000 meters from us. He generalized his panic to all cars type Nissan Navarra and reacted to this specific car even it was parked and the man was not there. I have been working with him and he has become better. Now he panics only if we meet this car on the road (not parked but driving). But then he panics furiously barking, jumping and biting into air around him. Sometimes he accidentally bites me too when I am holding him back – I don’t want that he jumps into the car and hurts himself. And here I don’t come further with his training. I try to stop him when I see this car coming to us, to stay between him and the car and to feed him with his favorite treats but when the car comes closer – what it is always doing because this guy does not care of us – Panu panics and every attempt to train him is senseless. I can only hold him and try to calm him. The fact that I am also now afraid of this car does not make the situation better – but I am afraid even I try to stay calm. Have you any ideas what I can do???
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 09:37:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015