wheelaholic dog

[sarahj18]

I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice as to why our dog keeps wanting to chase anything with wheels, eg bikes, prams even wheelchairs, he goes absolutely banana's when he see's them. He is quite the opposite inside the house, he is a rescue dog we've had him since last August he's a patterdale terrier x staffy he's 18 mth's old.

[tamborine]

dog needs training. Watch Dog Whisperer on freeview.

[paraffin]

He obviously can't tell you but clearly he's had some kind of bad experience with cycles of one sort or another before you rescued him.

No magical solution, just try to reassure him if and when he has another confrontation with them and in time he may well get over it and lose interest in them.

Good luck.

[wolf63]

Our bullmastiff cross used to chase mopeds and smaller motorbikes. Unfortunately he was as big as a moped and nearly as fast as one. I have no idea why he did it but he really enjoyed the sport.

He was a strange dog.

[fredpuli47]

Maybe it's breed specific ? LOL It's certainly hard to stop the little devils once they've learned what 'fun' it is ! I've had two standard poodles and one miniature poodle who did this, though not all poodles I've had did it.The two standards grew out of it, eventually (either that or they unaccountably listened to me!) but the min kept on doing it for all his 15 years.In their 'bike phase' ,all of them found joggers an irresistible attraction too. I rather meanly tended to agree with that, purely on grounds of taste, but had to be constantly on guard to stop any problem before it happened.

[wolf63]

I didn't want to mention Joggers - we had an unfortunate 'incident' with a jogger whilst in our local park. He was rugby tackled to the ground whilst the mutt sat on him and licked his face. Thankfully the man was really nice about it and it never happened again.

[sarahj18]

thanks to everyone who replied, except tambourine we are constantly trying to train him I wanted positive replys not something we already know! but fredpuli47 I hope we don't have this behaviour for the next 15years like you I feel real sorry for you, as it isn't a pleasure taking him out for a walk it becomes more a chore don't you think? but we'll keep on trying and thanks again by the way I'm still open to any advice or suggestions as long as they are helpful.

[Pipsy3]

Before you set out on a walk make sure you are not anxious about encountering anything on wheels, you nervousness will feed his obsession. Try to remain calm and confident that your walk is going to be incident free. Should you see a wheeled object approaching don't panic but continue walking, as soon as you notice you dogs attention stray towards the wheels give a quick sharp pull on his lead to distract him from fixating on the wheels, you must catch him as soon as he notices otherwise the fixation will escalate and you will be unable to correct him. It would be a good idea to give him a long walk somewhere quiet and distraction free first to calm him down before you walk somewhere busier.

[wolf63]

We ended up buying a rugby ball for the mutt to carry - he was that engrossed in carrying the ball that mopeds and joggers and cats and.................... were soon forgotten.

Good job he was a good natured dog.

[fredpuli47]

Being serious, Sara, I think it is possible to control this. I really wasn't fussed about the min poodle because he was never out without being on a lead, was easily controlled and out only rarely anyway, being on a farm. The standard poodles' chasing behaviour, I did have to attend to because they were also inclined to chase horses here on the farm ,not just any bike or jogger on the other side of the fence.

My answer was to have the bitch on a lead and as soon as she showed a rising interest in an approaching bike, indeed as soon as we saw it,I stopped, said NO very firmly, and gave a sharp disapproving tug to the lead if she'd start to move, so that she knew exactly what it was that wasn't approved. She then stopped, was reassured, or checked again, as the bike passed and was praised if she stayed still until the bike had gone.Then we'd walk on.Poodles are very quick learners, as well as eager to please the owner, so getting these standards to behave was not difficult, plus they were still quite young when they'd started this behaviour. Good on etiquette,they did not chase thereafter, once they'd learned that it was 'not the done thing' LOL