passing jogger - prey drive?!

reisende · 05-23-2008, 04:14 AM

there is a small-ish fenced park I take moonshine to for off-leash runs, play catch, etc, only when there is nobody else in the park.

there is a woman jogger who regularly jogs *in the park (it's so small I don't understand why anybody would want to jog in it!!). anyway, moonshine does not like it when she runs in circles in the small park. I would make him sit, but he would at times bark, whine, or pull at the leash, wanting to go to the woman, to do what I do not know.

there have been other people in the park before, for instance, a man who would go there at night to smoke his cigar. I wanted to let moonshine offleash so I asked the man if it was alright (he loves dogs so it's a yes), and moonshine 'met' him, sniffed/licked his hands, and then it was ok. we would play catch in the park with the man seated, and moonshine wouldn't care about him, just focus on his game with me.

when I take him out for walks, he does not bat an eyelid at people walking by or seated. so I would think that the jogger in the park thing is prey drive in action. what should I do? should I just have moonshine sit with me and watch the woman jog in circles in the park until he is 'de-sensitized'? when he stops whining, pulling or barking, I praise him and treat him, but he doesn't even look at my treat, he is SO fixated on the woman. when he does eat the treat he just gobbles it up in lightning speed it was actually hilarious. and he just goes on watching and watching the woman.

I would want the woman to meet moonshine, thinking it would help, but she doesn't speak english and doesn't seem to like dogs enough to want to approach moony.

what should I do???

sorthund · 05-23-2008, 11:44 AM

IMO, Don't let him off lead when she's there. If you have a leash law, you have to respect that there are people who don't like dogs or who might be scared of "the big bad Dobe". I think you did the right thing asking the man with the cigar if he'd be ok with your dog off leash. Wish more people would do that.

Lexxsmom · 05-23-2008, 11:55 AM

Lexx gets pretty fixated on joggers too. when there is one around I start "boot camp training" and by that i mean, we run through EVERY command he knows, multiple times, we sit, we down, we stay, we touch and i just keep distracting and distracting until he forgets about the jogger.

I would agree not to let him off though, he could scare her and thats not fair.

kimmy80 · 05-23-2008, 12:00 PM

Lucky does this as well, bikes or whatever is moving fast. Sometimes he doesnt seem to care and sometimes he barks mad. Just keep the concentration on you going and he will soon learn. My daughter could run circles around lucky now and he does nothin, he knows baby off limits. He still does occasionaly bark at runners,bikers. I do remember though when he was a pup (3-4 months) if the kids would run past him he would run behind them grab there shirts and pull them back. I dont know if its prey drive or wanting to get that person back into the pack.

Julie W · 05-23-2008, 08:31 PM

Have people you know meet you there and jog and you can work on desensitizing him to them instead of a stranger.

reisende · 05-25-2008, 03:01 AM

thanks all. no of course I wouldn't even dream of letting him offleash when the woman is jogging there! or even any other person! the moment I see a person I'd just avoid the park and take him for a walk instead. it's just that I'm wondering why this fixation on a jogging woman?

good idea julie, I will try getting a friend to do that. yesterday at a proper dog park, moony would chase any dog that ran, and once he managed to run past them, he'd be fine. but there was one young huskie which moony could not manage to catch and moony became quite mad and started barking while continuing chasing him! I'd think it's just a instinct to go for something that moves.. but I wouldn't ever want to test out what he'd do to a moving jogger.