I, of course, did not think it was a good idea for him to chase after a cyclist.
Raider, being an Australian cattle dog, border collie cross has an incredible prey drive - for actual prey. The prey drive is the instinctual desire to chase after things. Some dogs have a higher degree of this instinct than others and some dogs express this prey drive with different objects and in different situations.
For example, my German shepherd will chase squirrels, a ball, stick or Frisbee ceaselessly but could care less about horses, cyclists or joggers running by. Meanwhile Raider could care less about balls and sticks but he loves to chase cows, goats, geese and, well, cyclists! The chasing cows and goats thing is due to the fact that I have been training him to work cows while I am on horseback, which is one of the reasons I chose to adopt him. But the cyclist thing was a surprise to me.
Realizing this behaviour could potentially lead to problems when he is off leash and we are around cyclists or joggers, we have started an untraining-training regime.
I am untraining Raider to chase certain things while maintaining his training to chase other things.
I approach this situation with a great deal of patience. Because he is going to learn something that is counterintuitive, I will only use positive reinforcement to build a new image in his head about chasing things. Using punishment could increase his agitation around cyclists and using negative reinforcement - which is the removal of a reward for an inappropriate behaviour - would not work because the biggest reward to Raider would be chasing the cyclist. No treat could compete with that and I am certainly not going to allow any chasing of any kind around cyclists as a reward. The image I want to create in his head is that cyclists mean calm disinterested behaviour.
Starting him on leash, I go to an area that is frequented by cyclists and I observe him as we approach the moving bikers. The moment he begins to show signs of being just the slightest bit stimulated by the movement of the cyclists I immediately stop. I don't ask Raider to sit - or do anything really - as I am not teaching him any obedience exercises around the cyclists. Rather, I am rewarding calm and disinterested behaviour, which he needs to express willingly as opposed to me asking for it.
If I ask him to sit, he could easily be in an over-stimulated state internally but because he is sitting on command he is only showing me his external state of being, which is considered a false behaviour. If I reward this, then I could be rewarding an agitated dog that sits nicely. I want a calm dog that is unreactive - no matter what position he is in. So I wait quietly until Raider goes to a neutral state and turns his attention away from the cyclists and towards me. When he does this I mark the behaviour with a "yes" then give him a treat and praise. When he successfully begins to show unreactive behaviour consistently then I end the exercise with his recall, "Raider come" and run backwards away from the cyclist, with him leashed.
If Raider did not have a good recall, then I would start teaching him one, before we went anywhere near cyclists. If you don't have a reliable recall, you don't have a dog! After we successfully work in a calm disinterested state at one distance, we then move a bit closer. Again I observe Raider to identify the exact moment he becomes slightly stimulated by the cyclist and we begin our training at that point. I will continue this style of training, creeping closer until we are right beside cyclists whizzing by without Raider giving them anything more than a slight glance.
This whole process might take an hour, it may take a week or it might take a month or longer. It all depends on Raider and how quickly he is able to return to a calm neutral state amidst chaos.
The key - as always - to training a new behaviour or untraining a behaviour is patience and perseverance.
Joan Klucha has been working with dogs for more than 15 years in obedience, tracking and behavioural rehabilitation. Contact her at k9kinship.com.
