Doodles with obessions.....

[Frances Pendrous (Horan)]

Hello everyone. Oh dear me...do I need help with this one. My 12 month old doodle is absolutely OBSESSED with trying to catch lizards and bunnies.  At first, my hubby and I found it amusing and even encouraged it by pointing them out on our walks. To our chagrine, she is now so very obsessed in attempting to catch them that she spends her entire day in the yard running from wall to wall in a very feeble attempt to score. She totally exhausts herself and pays no attention to anything else. I guess exercise is a good thing but this is beyond just playing. The other evening I took her over the park where a group of us gather and our dogs all romp and play together which she used to absolutely adore. This night as I let her off her leash instead of just running into the group, she just totally ignored her friends and ran to the other side of the park, going completely deaf to my calls, and went into the bushes to catch the bunnies or lizards or whatever makes the bushes rustle.  It took me forever to get her back and the hill she climbed was so very steep that I thought she would be so incenses with her quest, that she would either fall and break something or worse get bitten by a snake. Needless to say, her obsession is such that I can no longer take her over the park to play off leash and also I just have no idea how I can break her of this terrible addiction.  Please...anyone got any suggestions other than a shot collar....

[Kare]

You do know the first setting on a shock collar is just "Vibrate"? I think you could break this without resorting to shocking, but it may take a collar.
I have the same trouble with my groodle and lizards at my office. It gets downright dangerous sometimes when we're going to and from the parking lot. He's 101# so impossible to control if he hears a rustle.
I hope someone has a good answer for you (and me!).

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

I didn't know you could get the shock collars with a "vibrate" setting. I have one that I use only in dangerous situations but it has a "tone" button. Firstly, when I put the collar on Gracie that is usually enough. She turns into an angel. But, should she forget, a tone is almost always good enough. I only use it when it comes to busy streets and tennis balls which don't mix!! What is the make of yours?

[Jill Ziegler]

My almost 4 year old Golden Doodle has the same obsessions. He will go to every spot in our background in a rotation as to where he has ever seen a lizard. It's especially bad during the Summer but he will still do it in the Winter when there isn't even any lizards out. He also goes crazy when there's a bunny in our yard. My Doodle runs 5 miles per day and that doesn't help at all. I don't think these obsessions can be altered because it's in their DNA to go after critters. I always keep my Doodle on a leash in public unless we are in a fenced dog park. Good luck.

[Frances Pendrous (Horan)]

Ha ha Jill..thanks for your reply. As I am typing this..I am sitting here looking at the mud caked face of my doodle who has just been digging down to China in our lawn to try and retrieve a "gopher" that has taken root there....You are so correct...I doubt if there is anyway we can change something that is in their DNA...as the urge to root out anything that moves is so great. Glad to know that I am not alone with this problem...but had to giggle when I read that even in the winter.....when there is nothing to chase...the quest goes on :) Thanks for replying...

[Bev and WILLY]

I watched a "Dog Whisperer" show that seemed to solve this problem. But I think it was with a pet rabbit that the dog had been going after. I don't know if you could find out which show it was, but he made the dog surrender by rolling on his back while the rabbit was in his cage next to him. Eventually he was able to let the bunny out of his cage and hop around the dog.
I had a Standard Poodle with this obsession and he hunted possums and squirrels in my back yard, and it drove me nuts seeing him pacing, panting and hunting all the time. I once took a flashlight out to the yard and found him dancing on his hind legs in circles under a tree where a possum was. It was funny and beautiful and sad all at the same time. He was completely obsessed with hunting, and when I kept him in the house he ran from one door to the other constantly. He often caught and killed these poor little critters and that was even more disturbing.This was before Cesar Milan, and I had no idea how to stop it, He eventually had to go to a wildlife free home, so that his nose and paws could heal from his rooting and digging. Hopefully you will find an answer here on Doodlekisses or through a trainer.

[Frances Pendrous (Horan)]

Oh Bev...when you wrote about your dog standing on his hind legs, dancing around that tree...it so put me in mind to my girl who does the same, but to a six foot wall, when a colony of lizards are happily perched safely up on top, looking dancing at my "dancing" girl who just cannot quite reach them. As I said, she does spend hours and hours exhausting herself with this hobby, so I guess it beats chasing for a ball...As far as the bunnies go, we have bunny fencing around the garden so they cannot get in anyway, but my walks can be a bit hazardous is she spots one and I don't. We have three cats, so she is used to tiny creatures running around her...I just think it is the "unexpected" pop-up that gets her going. Thanks for the heads-up on Cesar, I will try and find that episode on Utube...See you are the next romp :)