Dog chasing runners!

[Kim Starbuck]

Hi all,

My dog Cisco is about 1.5 years now... he is generally well behaved and friendly. I often take him running at a pond where dogs can be off-leash. He normally does well there, but lately he has become very interested in other runners and sometimes will run after them. I have tried to work more on his recall and training in general, but he still seems fascinated by runners. Once he catches up to the runner, he will jump around them and try to play -- sometimes the runner is OK with it, and sometimes they are terrified. Not OK!!

Any thoughts on what I can do to correct this? I have been keeping him on leash lately because I am scared he is going to chase after someone. He normally chases if he is already overly excited because he just saw another dog or went swimming...

Any ideas? Or should I just be keeping him on leash?

Thanks! Kim

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

First as a runner, let me say that unleashed dogs are a runners worst nightmare, whether you are a dog lover or not, it's still very frightening initially to have a dog chasing you. And stopping so that the owner can catch up to the dog, or to be sure it's friendly enough and try send it away is very annoying, physically stressful on a runner and in most cases can interfere with training that is possibly being timed. Frustrating! So please, please, please, keep him on a leash.

As for training, I would have him sit while a runner is approaching, continue to reinforce "stay", or "wait" or even "leave it" as the person runs by. With lots of treats during this time if he responds to your commands, this worked very well with my two and it was very important to me that they ran with me and ignored other runners as the pulling and stopping would just have been too uncomfortable. Now they will even walk or wait as another dog walks by as I tell them the command. I just do happy head pats now as a treat tho.

[Kim Starbuck]

yes I agree - thanks for the tips. Will work on it!

[Elizabeth, Bailey & Bruin]

I do the same thing with Bailey and Bruin.  I have them in a sit-stay.  I use it for a lot of things... squirrels, kids on bikes, runners and anything else that might be a hazard or distraction.