Trainer Tip #4

Dear Trainer,

I have a five year old female Imported German Shepherd.  She is great except for one thing, when we walk on her leash she tries to chase anything that moves; cars, bikes, skateboards, runners.  We have tried to break her of this habit but have been unsuccessful. Any tip you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Lorraine Lagana

Answer:

Hi Lorraine,

We often run into this problem with high prey drive German Shepherds. When we are customozing a family protection dog or one of our special service protection dogs we like to train our dogs to become familiar with environmental distractions such as livestock, other animals or human distraction as part of our advanced obedience training.

We have included a video of our trainer Ted Hoppe working on a high prey drive dog around livestock for a client.  This is what a professional trainer will call proofing a dog.

We hope the video give you insight into some of the techniques we use to address the problem you shared with us.  We are always available for a consultation and training.

Ted Hoppe

 Author: Jill Pavel