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Help! My Dog: The Podcast. Dog Behaviour & Training Strategies that Work!
Ep 115 Ready, Set, Go! Why Dogs Chase & Top Tips to Keep Them Safe
00:11:09
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Probably that can't be a calm delivery because otherwise we're not really speaking their language. Yeah, they're wanting to go to a disco and we're saying, come and get your yoga mat out. Right. It's just not gonna work. They wanna do the disco before we dive in. A warning. The content of this podcast may not be appropriate for some young listeners. This is real life and that means that sometimes it can be a little bit graphic. So. So listen on at your own peril. As a veterinarian, dog behaviorist, best selling author and trainer over the past decade, I've had an obsession with transforming the behavior of dogs, understanding their brains and creating practical strategies that you can implement easily at home. I know all too well when the dream you imagined when you first got your dog is far from your daily reality. In fact, out of the blue, a few months ago, my little dog, Gorse was bitten by a dog 20 times her size. And suddenly our of stress free walks, a calm and cuddly household and being teammates was replaced with reactivity, anxiety, and worrying about what's around the next corner. I'm Dr. Tom. This is the Help My Dog podcast. And this is me documenting that journey of transformation, sharing my knowledge and experience with you and having a few laughs along the way. Hello and welcome to this episode of the Help My Dog podcast. And today we've got a very requested topic. Okay. And that is dogs that chase. Okay. And that is Chase, I don't know, small furry things, Chase of a dogs, Chase joggers, cyclists. It is a really common struggle. And it's a really common struggle for one reason, really, and that is that dogs, by their nature as an animal, they're often very stimulated by movement. They find movement very stimulating. And dogs then sit on a spectrum of. Some dogs find movement more stimulating than other dogs. And so we sometimes experience extremes of dogs that absolutely get so stimulated by movement that they really struggle to disengage from it. And I want to make this episode really simple because realistically I could talk for like two weeks about Chase and how, you know, strategies and the approach for transforming Chase struggles, but ultimately it boils down to two buckets. Buckets. It's like my Yorkshire heritage coming out. And I'm not going to say that again now because I feel very self conscious. It falls under two categories and the first category is based on the fact that these dogs are super stimulated by movement, we have option number one, which is we could build ourselves up to be more exciting and higher value than the environment. In other words, we could provide a lot of stimulation ourselves that would override the stimulation that the environment can provide. We can make ourselves more exciting. Category one, Category two, we can make movement in the environment less exciting. And that kind of summarizes every different strategy and process and protocol for dogs that struggle with chase. It's going to drop into one or both of those buckets. I said it. I was genuinely like, ah, I can't believe it was there. Anyway, so let's just talk a little bit about each category. So category number one, make yourself more exciting. This is going to look like being aware that actually your dog does get really quite, does really love movement naturally. And so how can we incorporate more movement into interactions with us? How can we incorporate more movement into the way that we reward our dogs? How, how can we incorporate more movement into the games that we play with our dogs? And some of you might be listening and thinking, well, I can't move that much, I might have physical limitations or I don't want to be running around with my dog, which is also totally fine, right? And the answer to that is that you don't necessarily have to move, but you have to create outcomes that do move, right? So for example, you might roll the food, get them to chase the food by, you know, bouncing it along the floor, getting them to catch the food and you know, in an explosive way. Same with toy. It doesn't have to even down to think about it. You don't even have to move that much even if you're the one moving. What if you delivered a piece of food but as your dog went to get the piece of food from your hand, you turned around, you effectively did a spin around. A spin around spin doesn't have to be fast, right? You effectively turned around so that your dog had to come all the way around you to get it at the other side, right? That doesn't require like you darting around, you know, like an Olympic sprinter. And equally it gets you speaking your dog's language that little bit more, right? And the more we can speak their language better than the environment can, the more likely they are to choose those over chasing things in the environment. But category number one can't exist in isolation. Okay, hey guys, I just want to take a moment to answer a question that has been coming in literally 10 emails today, and that is how can we help you with your dog's behavior struggle, Whether that be reactivity, separation anxiety, resource guarding, Maybe you've got multi dog household struggle right now. Maybe your dog's just so over aroused on A walk that they just can't listen to you and they're chasing everything in sight, like, can I get Tom's help? And the answer is that actually you can. And you can do that by booking a behavet Behavior consultation. That's where literally my team give you the plan on how to transform your struggle and get you to that dream that made you get a dog in the first place. Right. Your world's got smaller and smaller and smaller and actually it doesn't need to be that way. You just need to reach out for help. Now, a couple of things to say on that. First of all, if you're insured, if your dog's insured with Pet Plan, Kennel Club, Agria or many pets, we actually do direct claims with them, which means that that's covered by your insurance. So you don't pay out of your pocket, your insurance covers that. And the second thing to say is that we have loads of options. If you're insured with another provider or if your dog's not insured at all, that's also totally fine. We have loads of options that we've developed to make this so accessible for you, because we're aware that you've already invested a load of time and a load of money in getting your dog, looking after your dog, caring for your do. But the last thing we want is for you to have done all that and still not be living the life that you deserve with your dog. And we know we can get you there. So all you need to do is go to the Behave Vet website and the way to do that is go B E H A dot, V E T. That's beh vet and it will take you there. Or just Google Behave Vet. Right. And you can get scheduled in and we can literally get you booked in for a consultation as soon as possible. We normally can accommodate it within a week. Right. So that you can be getting to your dream asap. But category number one can't exist in isolation. Okay. It needs category number two. And this is about making movement in the environment less exciting. How do we do that? Well, first of all, we've got to realise that every time our dog does chase something. Yeah, that's one coin in the. It's going to be more exciting next time bank account. Right. And we've all had that experience where our dogs actually were pretty chilled, or certainly not as, let's say, crazy as they are now. And then they have some one time, very exciting learning. Yeah, they're off lead, you're wandering through a park And a cat runs out of a bush right in front of their nose and it's like, oh, my goodness. And it's stimulating and they're chasing the cat. And then the next time you go to the park, their arousal level's that bit higher. They're checking out every bush. They're looking for opportunities to chase. Right. And so we know that the more they chase, the more stimulated they will be by chase. And that might mean managing your dog while we're working on this. In other words, actually, they don't have the skills to be off lead right now, so we need to get them back on lead. And then what we can do is we can look to neutralize movement in the environment, their emotional response to movement in the environment. As movement is happening, what we can do is we compare that with a positive outcome from us. I nearly said calm, and I'm glad I didn't because actually, what we have to think in this is that probably that can't be a calm delivery because otherwise we're not really speaking their language. Yeah. They're wanting to go to a disco and we're saying, come and get your yoga mat out. Right. It's just not going to work. They want to do the disco. And so instead, as movement happens in the environment. Environment. Can we maybe deliver a piece of food in a mildly movement way from us? Right. And when I say movement in the environment, I'm not saying stand in the middle of a field and wait for a cat to appear. Yeah. What I'm saying is that movement is happening all the time and the big wins happen through the small wins. When it comes to this struggle, the more we catch moments of movement which are happening all the time, and. And we pair that with a positive outcome from us. The more we get ahead and the more of a head start we get on the big stuff when it happens. Right. And effectively what we're doing is we're teaching them, hey, I spot that movement too. It's cool. And it's cool from me. Right. It's about disengaging from that and engaging with me. Now, there are tons of other strategies as well, guys, that would fall into each bucket, but I wanted to share what those two categories are, are, and also give you a couple of examples of what would go into each category so that you can start to consider your training as a whole. Often when we're talking to owners that have dogs that struggle with chase, what we often find is that they are focusing on one of the categories and neglecting the other category. And the reality is, is that the two transform hand in hand. Yeah, you need to have both often. Yeah. Especially with dogs that really struggle with Chase. You definitely need to have both. Sometimes you can get away with just the second category. Right. But often you need. You often need both. Right? So with that, guys, go forth, analyze your training. Think am I doing things for each category here? And we will see you next time.